
Class. 



Book 



^ 







THE 

IciVIL WAR IN AMERICA:? 

^ OR, THE IJjn 

5 Jlk^lto' Cwnspratg. | 



AN ADDRESS, 



REV. WILLIAM HENRY CHINNING. 



LIVE 11 POOL: 

W. VAUGHAN, 10, EXCHANGE STliEET EAST. 

LONDON : G. YICKEES, 172, STRAND. 

E. T. WHITFIELD, 178, STEAND. 

MANCHESTER: JOHN HEYWOOD AND ABEL HEYWOOD. 

AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. 



PRICE ONE SHILLING 



HP 



THE 

¥-99 

CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA: 



OR, THB 



'fetelrikr^ C^tispiracg, 



AN ADDRESS, 



WILLIAM HENRY CHAFFING 



LIVERPOOL: 

W. VAUGHAN, 10, EXCHANGE STREET EAST. 

LONDON: G. VICKEES, 172, STRAND. 

MANCHESTER: JOHN AND ABEL HEYWOOD. 

AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. 






LIVERPOOL: 

Printed and Published by W. Vaughan. Shorthand Writer and lleforter, 

10, Exchange Street East. 



gr 



PREFACE 



This Address lias been written out, at the urgent 
request of friends, for publication. As originally 
spoken, it occupied two hours and more, in delivery ; 
and it is here re-produced in a form, at once more com- 
prehensive and exact. It claims to be nothing more 
than a plain statement of facts, in regard to the gigantic 
Conspiracy, with which the Republic of the United 
States of America has for months been struggling, for 
very existence. So far as possible, I have allowedthe 
Slave-holders to bear witness against themselves, by 
giving ample extracts from their own speeches and 
writings. In doing this, I have aimed at even judi- 
cial accuracy. But I cannot pretend to be impartial. 
It would be less than human, at such a time, on such 
a theme, to speak in cold blood. Yet unsparing as is 
my condemnation of what I sincerely regard as a 
political crime, almost unprecedented and unap- 
preached in enormity, I have spoken more in sorrow 
and shame, than in wrath. Justice is mercy in this 
case, as always. The glow of patriotic loyalty, that 
pervades these pages, will not repel earnest readers. 
In such a crisis, patriotism cannot be too fervent, 



IV 

And now on the eve of a visit to the Republic, 
whose just cause I have here attempted to explain 
and defend, may I hope that this appeal, in behalf of 
my Nation, will gain candid readers, — if it may be, 
cordial response, — from kinsmen and friends in Great 
Britain. 

WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING. 



X.B.— 1 rejoice to express my obligations, in preparing this 
Address, to tbe New York Tribune, tbe New York Tones, the E 
Post, tbe Anti-Slavery Standard, and tbe Liberator, And here, a^ 
an American in England, I do, with a full heart, thank the editors of 
these and kindred papers, for their fidelity to our Republic, in this 
Trial Hour. 

W. : 

Liverpool, 

June 22nd, 1861, 



THE 

CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA 



If seven years residence in Great Britain can give me any 
claim to call you countrymen, if I have learned anything of 
your steadfast adherence to principle, your firm trust in 
God according to fidelity in duty, your sober good sense 
and reserved force of will, — it is animated by this spirit, 
indoctrinated by this faith, and cheered by this example, 
that I would address you to-night. In advocating the cause 
of Liberty and Order, one and inseparable, I rejoice to stand 
beneath the " Meteor-flag" of the Nation, whom Providence 
has called to be the pioneer of Civil and Religions Freedom 
around the earth. 

But while thus gratefully declaring my gain from seven 
years' experience in this favored land, never was I so proud 
and glad to be a citizen of the United States, — never so 
resolved to uphold the " Star-spangled Banner," — never so 
ready to give the best of life I have, in its defence, whether 
by tongue or pen, by counsel, or by deeds. For never 
was I so confident as now, that the Republic of the United 
States is a Free Nation, and that it is about to prove this 
fact conclusively to the civilized world. 

Together let us acknowledge, that the People of Great 
Britain and the People of the United States are really but 
"two branches of one Great Nation," — one in blood and 
brain, in moral tendency and practical power, — one by a 
common parentage and close ties of kindred, — one by 
language, literature, arts, laws, religion, — one in relative 
duties to our race, — and one in Providential destiny. God 
grant that, we may ever become more closely united, in 
mutual recognition, sympathy and interchange of good. 



A FREE NATION. 

With thankful memories of our heroic ancestors, eleva- 
ting our thoughts,— and under the solemn consciousness 
that this generation must give account to coming ages, for 
the perpetuity and growth of the Free Institutions, which 
our forefathers won and bequeathed, — would I claim a 
hearing. For the Republic of the United States is standing 
at the judgment-bar of Christendom; accused, — and by 
some, condemned, — as false alike to Civil Liberty and to 
Christian Love. In my hand I hold a bill of indictment, 
thus arraigning our People, as " Savages :" — " The ' bloody 
belt' is going round the States of the Confederation, as it 
used to go round the tribes of a Red Indian league. Pro- 
fessed peace-makers are in war-paint, the hatchet is dug 
up, and the talk of Christian Commonwealths, is all of 
scalping and tomahawking."* 

Thus can writers of " Leaders," iu prosperous Great 
Britain, find it in their hearts to pen easy paragraphs on 
earnest men, who, at their Nation's call, have cast asido 
what makes life dear, without a second thought, and who 
6tand ready to pour out their heart's-blood. in mainten- 
ance, as they believe, of Free Thought, Free Speech, Free 
Government and Laws. 

Amidst this awful trial of our Nation, all patriotic citizens 
of the United States, must long, in thought, word, act, to 
be worthy of the hour — to bs humble, temperate, prudent, 
firm, — confident in the just verdict of humanity, however 
slowly rendered, — relying upon the wise and benignant rule of 
the Universal Sovereign, who guides all events. "We must 
bear in patience our allotted discipline, fulfil with courage 
our appointed work, and wait with constancy, until by 
the triumph of loyalty and liberty, Providence permits 
our Republic to re assume its high post of honor among 
Christian States. 

And now I pass to the immediate subject of this address. 

1 am to set hefore you, as time permits, the Origin, Aim 
and End of the so-called " Civil War" in the United States of 
America. . 

• The London ' Timet' for Maj 21, 1861. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 7 

I. — Origin. 

The origin of this strife is a conspiracy of the Slave 
Oligarchy, to ruin, because they can no longer rule, the Republic 
of the United States. By Conspiracy is meant a plot of 
treason. The conspirators are the Slave Oligarchy, for the 
germ of this plot is a purpose to perpetuate and extend the 
Slave System ; and the ringleaders of the conspiracy are 
a few ambitiousand designing men. Trained and habituated 
to sway the policy of the United States, they cannot con- 
sent to drop the sceptre, they have so long wielded. In the 
words of F. P. Blair, of Missouri, a Kentuckian, by birth, 
himself in early life a Slaveholder, and by personal 
acquaintance familiarly introduced behind the scenes of 
this political drama : — " The politicians of the South are a 
disciplined corps, schooled in the art of managing a small 
embodied force, so as to subjugate vast multitudes. The 
attempt of our time has the Slave interest of the South for 
a pivot. . . . The mine and all its underground prepara- 
tions, — the work of years of eloquence and stealthy effort, 
on the part of the very few who favour such schemes — are 
at last laid open." 

1. The home and hiding place of this conspiracy for long 
years was South Carolina ; and the Grand-Master of the 
conspirators was the late John C. Calhoun. Mr. Calhoun 
was a man of sagacityand forecast, of stern logic and indomi- 
table will ; he wore an air of great personal dignity; and as a 
citizen, neighbour, and friend was everywhere spoken of with 
admiring respect. But he was also a man of soaring ambition, 
that knew no bounds: and his dauntless self-confidence brooked 
no superior. He was professionally a politician, and from early 
life he planned to manage the Democratic party, so as to 
serve the exclusive ends of the Slave-power. As far back as 
1812, Mr. Calhoun avowed to Commodore Stewart— then a 
young officer in the navy— that though the Southerners were 
essentially aristocratic, they based their rule on the sub- 
servience of the Democrats. To quote his words : — " This is 
our sectional policy. We are from necessity thrown upon, 
and solemnly wedded to the Democratic party — however it 



8 THE FATHERS Of THE REPUBLIC. 

may occasionally clash with our feelings— for the conservation 
of our interests. It is through our affiliation with that party, in 
the Middle and Western States, that we hold power. But when 
we shall cease thus to control this nation, through a disjointed 
Democracy, or when any material obstacle in that party shall 
tend to throw us out of this rule, we shall then resort to the 
Dissolution of the Union. The compromises in the Constitu- 
tion, under the circumstances, were sufficient for our fathers; 
but the altered condition of our country, from that period, 
leaves to the South no resource but dissolution , — for no 
amendments to the Constitution could be reached through 
a convention of the People, under the three-fourths rule." 

In this frank avowal, Mr. Calhoun did no justice to those, 
whom he names " our fathers ;" — for history conclusively 
proves, that the great men who framed the Constitution, were all 
but unanimously opposed to slavery, in principle and in policy. 
Washington, as his last act, manumitted his slaves. Mad- 
ison would not admit the thought of ownership in man into 
the Constitution, and carefully excluded the word Slave. 
Franklin was president of an emancipation society. So was 
Jay. And Jefferson summed up the unchanging creed of 
his whole life, in regard to slavery, in these words : — "Nothing 
is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these 
people are to be free." Indeed, at the time of the adoptiou 
of the Constitution, it was the universal understanding 
among all classes of Statesmen, that the Slave system was 
destined speedily to die out and disappear. The whole 
instrument was deliberately framed in that spirit; and 
from its preamble through all its provisions, was moulded 
in that hope. South Carolina and Georgia indeed, speaking 
through Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Baldwin, de- 
manded, as the condition for the acceptance of the Consti- 
tution by those States, that the Slave Trade should be 
tolerated for twenty years longer, until 1808. But it was 
undoubtedly believed on all sides then, that a limitation 
•of the Slave Trade would insure the extermination of 
Slavery itself. 

None then foresaw, that the invention of the cotton 
gin and the swift development of the cotton trade were 



THE SLAVE OLIGAKCHY. .9 

fatally to grant a new lease of sovereignty to the in- 
human system. But parallel with the expansion of the 
great agricultural and commercial cotton interest, may 
be traced new tendencies among the Slave politicians. 
Thenceforth their concentrated aim was to maintain in- 
violate, to diffuse without limit, and to perpetuate ever- 
lastingly, the institution, on which were reared at once 
their pride, and wealth, and power. Their device, as 
indicated in the words already quoted from Mr. Calhoun, 
was by management of the Democratic masses, so to guide 
domestic and foreign policy, as to give shape to the 
National Government, and to determine the whole destinies 
of the Republic. Their method was sagacious, as it was 
unscrupulous. It was merely to hold the balance of power 
between all parties, by the determining veto of a compact 
Slave Oligarchy. By unswerving adherence to this rule 
of arbitrary selfishness, did they successfully intrigue, for 
nearly half a century, to elect Presidents and Vice-presidents, 
Speakers of the House of Representatives, Secretaries of State, 
Treasury, and War, Chiefs of the Army and Navy, Judges 
of the Supreme Court and foreign Ambassadors. So subtly 
did they direct the action of the United States, at home 
and abroad, as invariably to serve the interests of the Slave 
power. And at the sluice of their idol were they ready, at 
any instant, to sacrifice the fame, honour, peace, progress, 
and true prosperity of the Nation. But in order to insure 
the maintenance of their tyrannical control, it was absolutely 
indispensable, that they should hold at least an equality of 
votes in the Senate of the United States. Hence the 
necessity for the multiplication of new Slave States, from 
the territories of the Republic. Here is the secret of the 
fierce debate, which preceded and accompanied the entrance 
of Missouri in 1820. And here, too, may be found the ex- 
planation of the Missouri Compromise line, plainly violating 
in spirit the famous North-West Ordinance. 

But although in that controversy the South won, for a 
time, the victory, through the weakness or treachery of 
a few Northern Statesmen, Mr. Calhoun and his com- 
peers sagaciously foresaw, that the rapid development of 



10 THE STATES' RIGHTS DOCTRINE. 

population, wealth, enterprise and intelligence in the Free 
States, would, in all probability leave the Slave States in 
a hopeless minority, at no distant future. Hence then, 
the earnestness with which a few leaders of the Slave 
Oligarchy insisted upon the doctrine of "State Eights, " 
in preparation for the inevitable period of Dissolution. Tne 
pretext for the " Nullification" movement, in 1832-33, was the 
emancipation of South Carolina from the burden of an 
obnoxious tariff; but the latent purpose of Nullification was 
to train the conscience and mind of the people of that State, 
and of all the Southern States, to the assertion of the 
sovereign rights of each separate State. In Nullification, 
Mr. Calhoun craftily planted the germ of Secession. Nulli- 
fication was the exercise of State Rights uithin the Union, 
the roots striking down to weaken and undermine the stately 
structure; Secession is the exercise of State Rights to dissolve 
the Union, the giant parasite subverting in ruins the com- 
monwealth Finding that he could not unite the South for 
disunion upon the tariff question, as Louisiana would have a 
tariff upon sugar, Mr. Calhoun declared to his followers, 
"we must force an issue on the Slavery question." Andrew 
Jackson, when President of the United States in 1833, was 
speakingfrom thorough knowledge of the plot and the plotters, 
when he wrote : — " Take care of your Nullifiers : you have 
them among you. Let them meet with the indignant frowns 
of every man who loves his country. The Tariff, it is now 
known, was a mere pretext, .... and Disunion and a 
Southern Confederacy were the real object. The next pretext 
will be the Negro or Slavery question.''* 

* Note. — It is but justice to the memory of Mr. Calhoun to add 
the following extract from Senator Jefierson Davis' farewell speech, 
delivered on January 1, 18C1. — " That great man who now reposes 
with his fathers, who has often been arraigned for want of fealty 
to the Union, advocated the doctrine of nullification, because it pre- 
served the Union. It was because of his deep-seated attachment to 
the Union that Mr. Calhoun advocated the doctrine of nullification, 
which he claimed would give peace within the limits of the Union, 
and not disturb it, and only be the means of bringing the agent 
before the proper tribunal of the States for judgment. Secession 
belongs to a different class of rights, and is to be justified upon the 
basis that the States are sovereign." 



THE PLOT OF DISSOLUTION. \i 

The poison plant was a generation in growing, which has 
borne the bitter fruit of secession. Mr. R. Barnwell Rhett, 
the devoted follower of Mr. Calhoun, says with haughty un- 
reserve; — "The Secession of South Carolina is not an event 
of a day. Jt is not produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, nor 
by the non-execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. It has 
been a matter which has been gathering head for thirty years ; 
and in the production of this result, the great men who 
have passed before us, whose patriotic efforts have signalized 
the times in which they lived, have not been lost. Have the 
labours of Calhoun been forgotten, when he declared a few 
years ago for the Secession of South Carolina, and that 
Secession would be the consummation of our liberties?" As 
early as 1856, Mr. Ehett wrote to Governor Adams, of 
South Carolina, the bold declaration, that "in his judgment 
all true statesmanship in the South consists in forming com- 
binations, and shaping events, so as to bring about, as speedily 
as possible, a dissolution of the present Union, and a 
Southern Confederacy." 

Am I not, then, perfectly justified, by this confession of 
one of the chief plotters of treason against the United 
States, in asserting, that this so-called '■ Civil War" origi- 
nates in a Conspiracy of the Slave Oligarchy, to ruin, because 
they can no longer rule, the Republic? 

2. Next, let me attempt to trace, by brief description, the 
development of this atrocious plot. Soon after Great 
Britain had so gloriously inaugurated her humane and 
Christian scheme of emancipation in her West Indian colonies, 
Mr. Calhoun, in some exceedingly emphatic State papers, 
declared, that this British policy should be regarded by the 
United States, as a direct act of aggression upon the Slave 
system of the South And thereupon, he earnestly advocated 
the annexation of Texas, as the most effective mode of check- 
mating such an artful design. With specious arguments, and 
urgent appeals to the passion and pride of the Southern and 
Western people, he fairly drove the Nation onwards to the 
accomplishment of that nefarious crime,— long cherished by 
speculative statesmen, from the days of Aaron Burr. And in 
the annexation of Texas sure provision was made, as the 



i'2 AGGRESSIONS OF THE SLAVE POWER. 

Slave Oligarchy confidently hoped, for the formation of six 
new Slave States. Great was their exultation over their 
triumph. 

Yet even this could not satisfy the inordinate greed 
for power of the Slave Oligarchy. Hence cuuning plots 
for the seizure or purchase of Cuba, \>j the strong 
arms of unscrupulous fillibusters, or from the readily- 
replenished coffers of the National Treasury. Hence skill- 
fully contrived intrigues to gain foot-hold in Central America. 
Hence the war v> 7 ith Mexico and the absorption of the rich 
province of California. And all this boundless extension of 
territory, purposed or realized, was with the single view of 
broadening the foundations and rearing high the structure 
of a grand Slave Empire, — as shall hereafter be shown. 

But this even was not enough. Intoxicated with success, 
imperious and self-willed, unapt to submit to the slightest 
check or restraint, and foreseeing an inevitable struggle, for 
life or death, with the party of Freedom in the Northern 
States, the sagacious chiefs of the Oligarchy boldly resolved 
upon an aggressive policy, against Free Men, Free Thought, 
Free Speech, Free Legislation, within the Union. Hence 
the Fugitive Slave Law ; the monstrous decrees of ex- 
plusion against the Free Negroes of the Slave States, by 
threatened penalties of re-enslavement ; the abrogation of the 
Missouri compromise ; the lawless attempt of Missouri border 
ruffians to seize and spoliate Kansas and Nebraska ; the in- 
famous intrigue, by means of the "Lecompton Constitution," 
to establish Slavery at one blow, throughout that vast region ; 
the iniquitous " Dred Scott " decision, opening boundless 
Territories to the incursions of slave owners and slave 
breeders ; the " Lemmon " slave case, artfully designed 
to ensure free transit and consequent residence for slave 
masters with their chattels, in every Free State, — thereby 
scattering broad cast the baneful seeds of slave institutions,- 
from the Potomac and the Ohio, up to Canada and the 
Lakes. Hence, finally, the demand for the authoritative 
re-assertion by Congress, of Mr. Calhoun's subtile sophism, 
that slavery is the "Common Law" of the nation, implicitly re- 
cognised throughout the Constitution ; and the consequent 



OUTBKEAK OF THE PLOT. 13 

claim for a " Slave Code" to over-rule all Territorial 
legislation of the United States. By mingled fraud and 
force, by bribery and corruption, by playing off popular 
passions in the mobs of great Northern cities against high- 
minded leaders of organised parties, by placing traitors 
and sworn conspirators in chief places of trust, throughout 
all departments of government, and in high commands 
of army and navy, — the Slave Oligarchy daringly schemed 
to subjugate all the Free States to the rule of their faction. 
And nothing but the Providential awakening of the con- 
science, honour, and patriotism of the People of the North 
and West, as organised and embodied in the Kepublican 
Party, hindered the appalling consummation of this lawless 
scheme. Foiled in their purpose to rule, the conspirators were 
then prepared for their other alternative, to Kutn the Eepub- 
lic. And had Mr. Fremont been elected in 1856, Governor 
Wise, of Virginia, with coarse brutality boasted, that he was 
prepared with an army to seize Harper's Ferry, spoil the 
National Arsenal, and then march upon Washington,- — 
there to take possession of the capital' and the offices of the 
departments, to steal the archives and seals of the Nation, 
and on the ruins of the Constitutional Union, to cement in 
blood the corner stone of a vast Slave Empire. 

3. Thus are we brought to the outbreak of this grand Con- 
spiracy in 1860-61. This outbreak was deliberately planned 
and provided for, in the Democratic Convention, held at 
Charleston, in the summer of 1860. The leaders of the 
revolt saw clearly, that if Mr. Douglas should be nominated, 
as the candidate of the Democratic Party, he would pro- 
bably be elected. And pliant as he had so often 
shown himself to be, the Oligarchy had found that there 
were bounds, beyond which the " Little Giant " would 
neither be lured nor forced to go. His scheme of" Squatter 
Sovereignty" could not be made safely and securely to serve 
their ends. Hence Mr. Douglas was insolently cast aside. 
And the " Seceders" from the Charleston and Baltimore 
Conventions rallied around Mr. Breckenridge, with the un- 
blushing avowal, that he was a " Sectional candidate." 
Their hope, as declared by themselves, was thus to prevent 



14 TREASON IN' CONGRESS. 

a Presidential election by the Peoole, and to throw it into 
the House of Representatives. \\ fa en, amidst the heated 
controversies, sure to accompany such an election, they 
schemed to lay violent hands upon the Government, and 
by the aid of treacherous abettors in all branches of the 
Administration, Civil and Military, to ensure the advent of 
the Slave Oligarchy to the despotic sway of the distracted 
nation. This design was defeated by the un- 
looked-for majorities, which voted for the Republican 
Candidate. When seeing that their carefully concocted 
plot would be utterly exploded, unless by some startling 
coup-de-main they could still win the desperate game, the 
conspirators instantly resolved to secede and organize the 
Confederation of the Slave States. Would but one State 
boldly take the initiative, they confidently conjectured tliat 
all the Slave States would be forced to follow. South 
Carolina, always restless and petulant, always selfish and 
unscrupulous, always— from Colonial days onward to Cal- 
hounism — ambitious and haughty, w ; js encouraged to lead 
the van. I need not trace in detail the hot-headed 
and hasty proceedings of the seceding States, nor 
describe the mock tragic pathos and unaffected inso- 
lence, with which their Representatives and Senators with- 
drew from the halls of Congress.* But it is important, 
unreservedly to declare, that each successive scene of this 
political melo-drama had been carefully studied out 
by the chief actors, for months in advance. Also 



Note. — Mr. Clemens of Virginia, thus graphically sketches the 
scene of Senator Toomb's and Senator Benjamin's, &e., exit: — 
" To be a diamond of the first water, a man must stand in the Senate 
House of his country, and in the face of a forbearing people, glory in 
being a traitor and a rebel. He must solemly proclaim the dt-ath of 
the nation to which he had sworn allegiance, and with the grave 
stulidity of an undertaker, invite its citizens to their own funeral. 
He can take an oath to support the Constitution of the United Slates, bui 
he ran enter with honour into a conspiracy to overthrow it. He can, 
under the sanctity of the same oath, advice the seizure of forts and 
arsenals, dockyards, and ships, and money bt longing to the Union, whose 
officer he is, and find a most loyal and convenient retreat in State 
authority and State allegiance," 



PRECIPITATING REVOLUTION. 



15 



should the fact be laid bare without the least disguise, 
that these conspirators were deliberately prepared to carry 
out their plot, at any cost, — aye ! — at the awful cost of Civil 
War. This terrible accusation I now proceed to verify, by 
evidence which cannot be questioned nor gainsaid. 

In 1858, the Honourable W. L. Yancey, in a letter to 
James Slaughter, Esq., dated Montgomery, June 15th, 
wrote as follows : — "The remedy of the South is in a dili- 
gent organisation of her true men, for prompt resistance to 
the next aggression. It must come in the nature of things. 
No National party can save us ; no Sectional party can ever 
doit. But if we could do, as our fathers did, organise 
Committees of Safety, all over the Cotton States— (it is only 
in them we can hope for any effective movement)— wc shall 
fire the Southern heart, instruct tho Southern mine], give 
courage to each other, and at the proper moment, by one 
organised concerted action we can precipitate the Cotton States 
into a Eevolution. 

"The idea has been shadowed forth in the South by Mr. 
Ruffin ; has been taken up and recommended by the Adver- 
tiser, under the name "League of the United Southerners" who, 
keeping up the old party relations on all other questions, 
will hold the Southern issue paramount, and will influence par- 
ties, legislators and statesmen." And so, through his 
"Committees of Safety" and "League of United Southerners," 
Mr. Yancey led on the bands of Secession. 

He found fit helpers in the famous " Knights of the Golden 
Circle^ under the lead of their chief, General Bickley. This 
order of the K. G. C. originated in a deep and settled 
hatred to " abolitionists," and a purpose to resist the en- 
croachment of " abolitionism," — by conquering more slave 
territories for the Union, thus equalising the Southern and 
Northern representation in the National Congress. In a 
letter to the Baltimore Daily Exchange, dated ''The Head 
Quarters of the American Legion, K G. C, White Sulphur 
Springs, Virginia, July 20, 1859, General Bickley writes : 
— " If the Cubans desire to be rid of Spanish dominion and 
to be a State in the American Union, on an equal footing, 
we will guarantee the accomplishment of their wishes. If 



16 CIVIL WAR PURPOSED. 

Spain objects, as she would, tben let Mr. Buchanan rest 
assured, that the K. G. C. will undertake to carry through, 
to our honour and credit, the incidental war on contract, 
and the highest figure shall not exceed 25,000,000 of dollars. 
.... The K. G. C would be willing to do such a work 
for Cuba, Mexico, the Central American or South American 
States You would have no right to term us " jillibusteros." 
.... The K. G. C. is oyer 13,000 strong; — and what is 
more, the flower of the nation, including many of its best 

men and members of the organisation Except to 

accommodate our policy, we should have no secrets in our 
work. A secret organisation has enabled us to pick our men." 
It may be here added, that the Houston Telegraph of Novem- 
ber 1, 1860, says — " that the order now numbers 150,000 
men, is daily increasing in number, power and influence, 
and that 50,000 men can be concentrated in ten days at any 
given southern point." So much for the famous K. G. C. 
But this is not all. On the 11th of November, 1858, 
the Hon. Jefferson Davis, then Senator for Mississippi, ad- 
dressed the people of his own State, at Jackson. In this 
address the Senator is reported to have said : — " If the 
Republicans should elect a President, what should the 
South do ? For his part, he had but one answer to give. 
When that happened,— when the Government was in hostile 
hands, — when the Presidency and the Houses of legislation 
were controlled by the enemies of the South, — he was for 
immediate withdrawal from the Union, — he was for assert- 
ing the independence of Mississippi ; and in view of the 
aspect of public affairs, he advised the people of the South 
to turn their old muskets into Mime rifles, prepare powder, shot, 
shell, and ammunition of all kinds, so as to be ready against 
any emergency. Let the star of Mississippi be snatched 
from the constellation, to shine, if it must be so, through 
all the storms and clouds of war." And in full response to 
the Senator of Mississippi, Mr. Singleton, the represen- 
tative of that State, on January the 20th, 1860, thus uttered 
the purposes of his constituents : — " We will have expan- 
sion of slavery in the Union, or outside of it, if we must. 
If you wish to know my advice to Mississippi, — I say, the 



TREACHERY OF J. B. FLOYD. 17 

sooner we get out of the Union the better. We don't in- 
tend lo be prescribed to present limits, and it will not be 
in the power of the North to coerce 3,000,000 of free men 
at the South, with arms in their hands, and prevent their 
going into the surrounding territories. Gentlemen must 
remember that a gallnnt son of the South, Jefferson Davis, 
]ed our forces into Mexico ; and thank God, he still lives, 
perhaps to lead a Southern Army." 

Yet spite of " Committees of Safety" preparing to "pre- 
cipitate revolution ;" — and "Knights of the Golden Circle," 
prompt to achieve it; — and " Southern Armies" making 
ready their " rifles," we hear loud professions of peaceful 

SECESSION ! 

To carry out this loyal and fraternal programme, how were 
the gallant '-Chivalry of the South" to be armed, for the 
war of independence ? This question opens the next black 
and bloody chapter of the Slaveholders' grand conspiracy. 
And a more hateful page of treachery, perjury, fraud, and 
wholesale robbery, cannot be found in the history of man- 
kind. By tacit consent, Mr. Jefferson Davis was appointed 
Dictator of the movement, for a Coup <T etat. Appointed 
Chairman of the Senate " Committee on Military Affairs," 
he was brought into immediate intercourse with the military 
men, and thus made perfectly acquainted with the military 
resources of the Nation. And during the summer of 1860, 
lie made his head quarters at the military Academy of West 
Point, where with John B. Floyd, the Secretary of War, 
was arranged, as is conjectured, the plan of the campaign. 
The full details of this audacious outrage against National 
good faith and honour, may never be fully known. Enough 
however, has been already detected, to cover the name of 
Floyd with everlasting infamy. During that, season, there were 
sent from the Spring-field Armoury, in Massachusets, alone,-- 

To South Carolina . . . 15,000 Muskets. 

„ Alabama .... 15,000 

„ Georgia .... 20,000 

„ Louisiana. . , . 30,000 „ 

„ North Carolina. . . 25,000 

Total . . . 105,000 Muskets. 



18 TREACHERY OF J. B. FLOYD. 

In addition to these weapons, all made in the latest and 
most improved styles, 20.000 smooth bore muskets were 
sent from the some armoury, to New York, and from this 
point, sold to Southern purchasers, at less than one-fifth of 
their actual value! We have also the authority of General 
Wool for stating, that 10,000 similar weapons were re- 
moved from the Watervliet Arsenal, in New York, and sold 
to S. B. Lamar of Georgia, for 2 dollars 50 cents each, — 
their cash cost being 14 dollars. And this, although for 
an outlay of 75 cents on each weapon, the barrels could 
have been rifled, in conformity with the standing regula- 
tions of the National Service. Meanwhile, at die close of the 
previous session of Congress, by instigation of Senn tor Davis, 
a bill had been passed, forbidding the Secretary of War from 
purchasing patented rifles. The purpose of this distribu- 
tion can readily be understood, when it is made known that 
Georgia, to whom was made a present of 20,000 muskets, 
besides receiving an additional 10,000, at less that one- 
fifth of their nctt cost, was entitled by law to only 1,221 ; 
that Lousiana who received 30,000, could rightly claim 
but 185 ; and that to Alabama, to whom was given 15,000 
muskets, were due only 150. 

That there may be no possible misunderstanding in re- 
gard to the design of Mr. Buchanan's Secretary of War, the 
following extract is given from the Southern Confederacy, 
published at Atlanta, Georgia : — " But for the foresight, and 
firmness, and patriotic providence of John B. Floyd, in 
what stress and peril would the Cotton States be flounder- 
ing this day ! He saw the inevitable doom of the Union, 
or the doom of his own people. For many months past, 
from his stand-point, he had an extended field of vision, 
which enabled him to see the great danger which threatened 
us, but which was hid below the horizon from the eyes of 
most of us. When his faithful loyalty to his own perse- 
cuted people began its labour in our defence, in what 
condition were the Southern States ? The North had the 
heavy guns, the light arms, the powder and ball, just as the 
North had everything else that belonged to the common 
Government. How quietly were men shifted from pur soil, 



TREACHERY OF J. B. FLOYD. 19, 

who might have been h^re to-day to murder us, at Abraham, 
Lincoln's order. How slender the garrisons became in 
Southern forts, which were made for us and belong to no- 
body else, but which a savage enemy now chafes and rages 
to get possession of ! Who sent 37,000 stand of arms to 
Georgia? How came 60,000 more prime, death-dealing 
rifles at Jackson, Miss. ? And, in short, why have we any- 
thing at all, "in the South, to mail the strong hands of the 
sons ol the South with, at this hour, when every heart and 
head and arm of her children are needed, ill her defence? 
Truth demands it of us to declare, that we owe to John B. 
Floyd an eternal tribute of gratitude, for all this. Had he 
been less the patriot, than he was, we might now have been 
disarmed, and at the mercy of a nation of cutthroats and 
plunderers." 

It is well known, moreover, from the official army list 
for I860, that marly all the public Arsenals and Armouries 
were placed in charge of officers from the Southern States, 
while at the same time orders were issued from the War 
Depaitment, for the total dismantling of the border Arsenal 
-at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the removal of its immense, 
stores of ordnance and ammunition to certain unfinished 
and unoccupied fori;s, at the extreme south-west. To make 
sure work, and to guarantee that his plans were exactly 
executed, Mr. Floyd, at the same time, granted leave of ab- 
sence to many officers of the United States, both Civil and 
Military, to enable them to devote their time and labours 
to the Secession cause, while still continuing to draw pay 
from the Treasury of the Union. Having thus entrusted 
the vast military materiel of the Republic, for safe keeping, 
to officers from the Southern States, having thus deliber- 
ately despoiled the armouries and aisenals of the Korth, 
and transmitted these JL50,000 to 200,000 stand of arms to 
the Slave States, to be ready at hand for the use of the 
Southern Traitors, Senator Jefferson Davis and Secretary, 
Flond might complacently assure their fellow conspii at jrs, 
that all was prepared for the day of action. 

As this unparalleled and almost incredible breach of 
*rust so appals the conscience and imagination, s alike, > 



20 TREACHERY OF J. B. FLOYD. 

by its infernal character, and the awful consequents 
it has brought in its train, it is but strict justice, tl at 
these charges should be fully substantiated. And ihe 
witness, who shall be called to coniirni them, is no 
other than John B. Floyd himself, who at a public 
dinner at Richmond, Virginia, thus boas' ed of his 
perfidy, and gloried in his shame :— " By accident beyond 
my merits/' he says, " I happened to be placed in an 
unfortunate position ; and laboured there to understand 
its powers and responsibilities. I soon found that it was 
an armed power for good, and also armed with immense 
power for evil. ... I undertook so to dispose of the power 
in my hands, that when the terrific hour should come, you, 
and all of you, and each of you, should say — ' this man has 
done his duty.' (Loud applause from the Richmond- 
audience.) I saw the fissure in the iceberg coming — I 
knew there was no power, between earth and heaven, that 
could divert it. I understood, as I understand this 
moment, that as it had split everything in its path, it was 
destined to split the administration of the United States. 
I stood firm. ... I do not come here to censure, gentle- 
men, but I will say, because it is due to the truth of history, 
that in that terrific conflict in which he was engaged Presi- 
dent Buchanan was not as well sustained by the South, as 
he deserved to be. Perhaps it was intended, that this present 
catastrophe should be precipitated upon the country ! If the 
South had taken a different course, this doubtless would 
not have come !" After then acknowledging, that Mr. 
Buchanan desired and designed to reinforce the garrisons 
in the forts, Mr. Floyd continued — "I said, I will not con- 
sent, I cannot consent, I dare not consent, that you shall, 
under the guise of taking care of the public property, intro- 
duce into the Southern country a power, that will rise up 
presently and probably aim at emancipation. . . . Thus 
I stood there, gentlemen, I can't say how ; I won't say with 
what doubts, I will never say with what fears and trepidity, 
with what pain and suspense, I stood ihere. 1 wanted help, 
and 1 called for help. I called for help from that briyht 
Saladin of the South, Jeff. Davis of Mississippi,— (applause 



flood's fellow- traitors. 21 

ironi the Richmond audience) — and I said 'come to my 
rescue ! The battle is a little more than my weak heart 
can support, come to me !' And he came ! ! ! Then came 
that old, jovial-looking, noble-hearted representative from 
Virginia, James M. Mason. Then came the youthful Nes- 
tor, — anomaly of modern times — Hunter I had 

been nearly four years Secretary of War. and it had not 
"been thought necessary to occupy any of the forts ! I put 
my foot down, and declared, that while I was Secretary of 
"War it never should be don<v' After then describing 
General Scott's programme, which he says "he did not like, 1 ' 
he continued : — " Gentlemen, I never supposed that I could 
stay in the cabinet after that ; but to stay in it up to that 
point, I thought would be well." Thus then, is distinctly 
revealed, that it was the Secretary of War, — aided and ani- 
mated by the Chairman of Military Affairs, — both pledged 
•by solemn oaths to guard the Constitution, the Laws, 
and the Union, from detriment, — who became the chief 
tool of the conspirators to disarm the Government, and 
leave it helpless, and to arm the traitors for the fatal hour, 
when the tocsin of Secession should peal. 

And now let us pass to the last act of the drama, and 
rapidly trace the catastrophe. The Secessionists were all 
ready, as they madly dreamed, to conquer or to crush the 
Republic. And first, if chance served, they would conquer. 
Their proposed enterprise had, it must be acknowleged, 
the merit of dauntless self-confidence. In the words of 
Senator Brown of Mississippi ; — "Mr. Seward and his 
followers (the Republican Party) are our enemies and we 
are theirs. He has avowed that there is an " irrepressible 
conflict " between us ! He and his followers have declared 
war upon us, and I am for lighting it out to the bitter end. 
It is clear, that one or the other must go to the wall, and 
the sooner the better." Again, Mr. Keitt, in reply to the 
question, " how can the South be saved from injury if 
-the Republican Party comes into power ?" exclaimed, "I 
answer, only by dissolving/ the Government immediately. Then 

IjOYALTY TO THE UNION WILL BE TREASON TO THE SOUTH." 

"By hundreds and by thousands a solemn vow was registered. 



52 SOUTH CAROLINA. 

that the Republican President should never ascend the- 
Presklentirtl chair,— or that if he succeeded in so doing, 
that he should not live one week. 

And so the signal was given, and Secessionists stood 
equipped to march out of the old Union and into the new, 
" at the tap of the drum." South Caiolin a, according to 
word of command, first seceded. She did so with tho 
avowed understanding, tlmt if "she could swing herself out 
of the Union, she would sooner or later drag all the Slave 
States with her." In the words of R. B. Rnett: — "at the 
coming session of Congress, it a Southern Confederacy be 
formed, or if South Carolina secedes alone, as she ivill, — a 
force bill will be moved by the North. And I shall not be 
at all surprised, should a force bill be attempted, if you 
should see the whole South come out of Congress, as they 
came out of the Charleston Convention. . . . Sooner or 
later, the other slave holding States must come to us. If 
they do not come immediately, it is well. They will act 
as mediators, in this great cause." 

The Louisville Journal justly administered this cutting 
rebuke to South Carolina : — ' It seems to us that the whole 
annals of the human race do not present such an example 
of arrogance and presumption, as this attempt of South 
Carolina to coerce the Border Slave States out of the Union. 
If she herself desires to go out, let her go ; we do not desire 
to coerce her. And yet she seek? to " drag" us af er her, 
with the hazard of ail that makes life worth having, — to 
"drag" us away from a Government, with which we are- 
satisfied, under which we enjoy prosperity and peace, into 
a slaughter-house of civil and servile war, — to " drag "' us 
from this Government, constructed by the wisdom and 
patriotism of our venerated forefathers, and cemented by 
their heroic blood, and to force us down a precipice, the 
bottom of which no mortal eye can see." 

And well said Hon. Winter Davis, of Maryland, that 
"if the dire day should come, when " peaceful secession 
should be attempted,— that peaceful secession would be 
found to mean the arresting of the United States Marshals,, 
'the driving away United States Judges from the bench, 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 23 

the taking forcible possession of United States Custom 
Houses, and ai resting the execution of all United States 
Laws. . . . The Secessionists stood ready at any moment 
to let loose upon this blessed land the hell hounds of 
demoniac passion, determined to break up, destroy and 
ruin the country." And how literally was the prophecy 
of Webster fulfilled, when speaking of " Nullification," he 
Baid : — " What it then appeared to me, it now approves itself 
to be in this, the first attempt to put it into practice. It 
is resistance to the law by force ; it is disunion by force ; 
it is Secession by force ; it is Civil War." 

Only by thus unsparingly and unscrupulously risking 
Civil War, could the slave-holding Oligarchy hope to con- 
quer the Republic. And their very first act, as is notorious, 
was a simultaneous and sudden attempt ro seize all arsenals, 
forts, custom bouses, treasuries, and revenue cutters of the 
National Government, throughout the Gulf States. Every- 
where, too, they instantly inaugurated a "reign of terror," by 
arousing the popular passions, irritating state jealousy and 
pride, firing the Southern heart, and spreading among the 
Southern people the contagious panic, fever and frenzy of 
Secession Thus they exiled, imprisoned, killed, overawed, 
silenced the loyal friends of order and Union. And next, with 
overt acts of violence they sought, — either to humiliate the 
Buchanan Administration, by exposing its weakness to 
contempt ; or else, by forcing it to some faint exercise of its 
lawful authority, to find pretexts for denouncing its tyrannical 
oppression. By one course, or by the other, their end would 
be equally gained, they hoped, of compelling the Border 
States to make common cause with the Cotton States. To 
quote the words of the Richmond Enquirer, when insisting 
that the Gulf States should immediately attack Fort Sum- 
ter and Pickens, as the only mode of securing the co-oper- 
ation of Virginia ; — "Let the Confederate States once appeal 
to arms for resistance to invasion, and the "Submissionist" 
programme will loose its last prop in the Border States." 

Thus, through the dark and dreary months of the last win- 
ter, — when traitors everywhere held places of trust, — when 
traitors boldly proclaimed rebellion, as the prime duty 



24 AUDACITY OF TRAITORS. 

of patriotism, on the floors of Congress.— when Officers of 
Army and Navy abjured all oaths, forfeited their honor, cast 
fame away, aud became — -first spies, to discover the secrets of 
Government, then sneaks to desert it, at the Mist approach 
of insidious enemies, — a magic incantation seemed cu hold 
spell bound the National Legislature and Executive. Thank 
God ! this dreadful inertness was not the chill torpor of 
coming death. Mashes of eloquent argument and earnest 
appeal in both Houses of Congress, — sallies of heroic 
patriotism, — sagacious foresight and firm resolve in vaiiona 
brandies of the public service, — high toned newspaper 
editorials, — soul stirring pulpit addresses, — and above ail, the 
slowly awakening consciousness of National Unity, through- 
out the People of the Free States, gave sure tokens that iu 
brain and heart, the Republic was vigorously olive. 

Doubtless, however, these bold aggressions of the Con- 
spirators were encouraged by the presumption, that the Tree 
States were so internally divided and demoralized, that no 
effective resistance could be made. In their blind pre- 
sumption, they had but to dictate terms, to feel sure that they 
must be accepted. And indeed, they were publicly invited 
to do so, by abject presses and politicians at the North. 
Well might they cherish this confidence, when ir. addition to 
Committees of Conciliation, and Peace Conventions, at Wash- 
ington, were added such orools of popular feeling, as may be 
found in the following extract from a daily pa per, in New York: 
— "What Government would retain possession of the army and 
navy ? Have you the ignorant presumption to suppose, that 
Black Republicans, or their abettors, can. iu the event of a 
revolution, such as it is now apparent must soon exist, hold 
any position or power as a Government ? If, so, permit me 
to inform you and all others of like mind, that such will 
not be the case. Iu the event of a revolution, the en:ire 
South, and the entire Democracy of the Northern States will 
be a unit— will act together — will fight together — and will, 
in spite of Republicanism, black or other, seize and control 
the army and navy, and organize a Government such as, in 
virtue of their phvsical and numerical power, and their unity 
of interest, they have a right to. As this natural and just 



ABSOLUTE GOVEENMENT. 25 

combination of power and interest would take at least three- 
fourths of the entire population of the present Union — - 
(and much more than that proportion of ils brain and 
muscle.) what is to prevent it from organizing (and compelling 
submission to. if need be) a stronger and better Government, 
than as ever yet existed on this Continent? One that shall 
recognize the rights of every section, and be terrible only to 
Black Republican Agitators, who have been trifled with long 
enough, and who deserve, and must have, power enough applied 
to them, to crush them out. Let me tell you, Sir, that 
the Army and Navy, over the contemplated control of 
which you chuckle so heartily, are now in Democratic 
hands ; and the country has yet, thank God, an able and 
efficient Democratic Administration ; and the day is far 
distant, when the control of that power will be yielded 
to any party, adverse to that unity of interests, which exists 
between the Slave States of the South and the Demo- 
cracy of the North. Who then, in this coming conflict 
is to be "without army, without ships, and at best, im- 
measurably the weaker party?" With the control of the 
Administration, and through it of the Army and Navy, 
(which will never be yielded to its enemies,) — with a numeri- 
cal majority of three to one, — with an armed and eager foreign 
population, which can be organized into an army of thirty 
thousand men, in five days, in this City alore, what have the 
Democracy of the North and their friends of the South to 
fear ? Let those fear, who are weak, and let all Black 
Republicans who are anticipating a good time a-head, read 
and digest the above unpalatable facts." 

Thus nearer, and nearer, came the fated day of the Fourth 
of March. A terrible tragedy w r as threatened. For, what 
at first was regarded, as mere vague surmise and unfounded 
suspicion, is now proved to have been the fact, — that 
cunningly concocted plots were matured for the assassina- 
tion of President Lincoln — plots which were not executed, 
bolely because cut short, by the vigilant fidelity of the head 
of the army and the provident skill of the appointed Secre- 
tary of State. Had Mr. Lincoln fallen victim to this 
bloody intrigue, an attempt would at once have been made 



%6 PLOTS OF THE OLIGARCHY. 

to fulfil the scheme already marked out in 1856, by seizing 
the capital, and organizing a Provisional Administration. 
Near the close of the Session of Congress, indeed, Senator 
Iverson of Georgia had uhblushingly claimed the co-opera- 
tion of Maryland and Virginia for the Secession movement, 
—contending that the seat of Government would then 
revert to Maryland, and thus " conveniently serve" the 
purposes of the Southern Confederacy. 

Extravagant to the verge of madness, as such a scheme 
must appear to impartial onlookers, there is now not a 
doubt, that for weeks after President Lincoln's inauguration, 
even at the very capital of the nation, and in sight of the 
White House, —from Baltimore, on the one hand to Rich- 
mond on the other, — and throughout the wide adjacent 
regions, armed Secessionists stood waiting for the signal, 
to rush upon Washington in a desolating flood. From 
the weak hands of an over-confiding and over-conciliatory 
Administration, they confidently hoped to wrest the offices, 
insignia, seals, archives, — yes ! the very title, prestige, and 
political influence of the United States. And around the 
centre of a secret Slave Oligarchy, they wildly dreamed of 
"re-constructing" a»National Union, which in due time 
should re absorb the Border and Middle States, in ^lal 
assimilation with the South. 

But whether immediately successful or not in this plan -of 
"Re-construction," the presumptuous Slave Oligarchy felt 
full assurance, that either by force or by management they 
could, as they jeeringly boasted, "crush out" the Free 
North. By force should their end be gained, if civil war 
began. For so disheartened and disunited did they 
believe, that the Democratic masses had hecome, by 
defeat, — so cowardly, and loosely organised, while fanatical 
did they deem the successful Republican party, — so drunk, 
with love of gain, and corrupted by worldliuess, did they 
esteem the merchants, bankers, and gentry, of the great 
cities. — so mean and mercenary, were they accustomed to 
regard the industrial classes, both agricultural and mechani- 
cal, — that they scarcely conceived of the possibility, that the 
Free People should, with -spontaneous loyalty, rally, like a 



PLOfS OF THE OLIGARCHY. 27 

giant amused from sleep, in defence of the National Govern- 
ment. How could a disarmed and distracted, a cowed and 
timid population resist the onslaught of the conibiued 
phalanxes of '■Southern Chivalry,' 'poured along the mainlines 
of railroad communication, upon the grep.t marts of com- 
merce, and wielding over the helpless and down-trodden 
multitude the iron scourge of military law? 

But inanarjement seemed a surer and safer, a more expedi- 
tious and cheaper mode of " crushing out" the spirit of 
freedom. It was too, the method which the Oligarchy had 
been long wonted, and with such wonderful success, to em- 
ploy. Hence the dilatory, complex, inextricable entangle- 
ments of the last winter, at Washington. Let but the Cot- 
ton States secede, — next, let the Border States, as neutrals, 
mediate, while Treasurer Cobb's scheme, for breeding finan- 
cial panic, paralyzed commerce and industry, prostrating the 
capitalists by bankruptcy, and maddeuiDg the workman by 
wanr, — then let an uncompromising tone and air be firmly 
assumed by the Slave holding aristocracy, and all might yet 
po well Their most exclusive claims tor equal share in the 
National Territories, — limitless expansion toward the South- 
West.— prompt ieuclition of Fugitive Slaves, — unimpeded 
transit of Masters with their negroes, — a shackled press 
and a silenced pulpit, — Abo'itiouism proscribed, — the 
Slave-system crowned as eentral principle of the Constitu- 
tion and of political parties, — and finally, Slaveholding 
recognised as the preeminently Christian form of Civilization, . 
—all would be granted. Thus the Secessionists retreated, 
that they might return in triumph. Voluntary exiles from 
the Union, they could condescendingly wait, till a welcome 
back should be tendered, upon then- own terms. 

That this was the subtle po'icy of one wing, at least, of 
Seceders, may readily be proved. Even Senator Iverson of 
Georgia said, as lately as December llth, 1860, — extreme 
Disuuionist though he was :— " How many arguments in 
favor of Slavery, its morality, its social blessings, ever reach 
the Northern ear ? How arc you to reach it? There is 
but one way. Let the South go out of the Union ; andV 
tvheu the North sees its folly, then it may recoil and a sound 



23 SECESSION A TRICK. 

state of feeling nrise, — but not till then." And Hon. A. H. 
Stephens, in his famous "Union Speech," on the 1 4th of 
November last, laid down his programme thus: — "Let the 
States know what your grievances are, And it they refuse to 
give us our rights under the Constitution of rmr country, I 
should be willing, as a last resort, to sever the ties of this 

Union I would wish the whole South to be united, 

if this is to be done ; and I believe if we pursue the policy 
I have indicated, this can ba effected in this way our 
sister Southern S f ates can be induced to act with us. And 
I have but little doubt that the states of New Yurk, Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, and other Western States will compel their 
Legislatures to recede from their hostile attitude. With 
them we could go on without New Knghmd.it s'ie choose to 
stay out. I think, moreover, th it the Northern States, heing 
principally engaged in manufactures, would find th it they 
had as much interest in the Union, under the Constitution, 
as we have, aud that they would velum to their constitutional 
duty. Tliis would bs my hops." That Secession was "a 
political trick, intended to coerce the North in t# concessions, 
which the South despaired of securing within the Union," 
is conclusively proved by the following declaration of J u 'ge 
Handy, Commissioner from .Mississippi to the State of 
Maryland: — 'Secession is not intended to break up the 
present government, but to perpetuate it. We do not pro- 
pose to go out by way of destroying the Union as our fathers 
gave it to us. but we <p out for the purpose of getting further 

guarantees and security for our rights ' ur plan is for 

the Southern States to withdraw from the Union, for the 
present, to all no amendments to the Constitution to be made, 
guaranteeing our just rights." 

Thus spoke the managers, the " Neutrals," *' Mediators," 
-" Co-operationists," " .Reconstruction ists," during the whole 
of the last Session of Congress. Were they sincere in this 
expressed hope of re-union; or was their object, in the 
words of Commissioner Forsyth, " merely to gain time, until 
the South could complete its military preparations and 
become invincible?" The strong probability appears to be, 
that while a few calm, loyal, aud generous patriots, even in 



RULE OR RUIN. 29" 

the secession party of the Gulf States, did cherish the lingering 
hopeof a pacific solution for the problem — the leaders of 
the Conspiracy merely used the dreads and difficulties of the 
Border States, as a screeu, behind which they might equip 
and marshal their rapidly enlisted legions, for a crushing 
blow at the National Government. Meanwhile, this one 
broad fact was patent, — that the " Tredegar works " in 
neutral Virginia, and " Winan's Works" in neutral Maryland,, 
were night and day, week in week out, pouring forth 
Columbian's, Dalgrens, and Rifled Cannon, as fast as extra 
labour could produce them, — under coutract with the 
Secessionists ; and that from the North, from England, 
Belgium. France, &c, the "Confederates" were purchasing 
and storing vast amounts of ammunition and war-material of 
all kinds, with unresting energy. Wherefore this immense- 
outlay in instruments of force, while the "Washington 
Administration was even inertly passive ? Can there be any 
possibility of misapprehension as to the merciless aud 
inexorable determination of the Conspirators? Alas! No 1 
Their own avowals leave no foothold for a doubt. Thus 
spoke Senator Toombs of Georgia, as far back as the Q4th of 
January, 1860 :— " Never permit this Federal Government to 
pass into the traitorous hands of the Black Republican Party. 
It has already declared war against you aud your institutions. 
It every d ly commits acts of war against you : it has already 
compelled you to arm for your defence. Lis' en to ■ no vain 
babblings, to no treacherous jargon about 'overt acts ;' they 
have already been committed. Defend yourselves ; the 
enemy is at your door ; wait not to meet him at the hearth 
stone — meet him at the door-sill, and drive him from the 
temple of liberty, or pull down its piVars and invoUe him irv 
a common ruin." Thus finally, does that prophet of woe, — 
insanely fierce as if driveu by the furies, — Kobert Barnwell 
Bhett of South Carolina, predict the swift coming doom of 
the Republic : — "Could I raise my voice, until its tone reached 
the majesty of thunder, I would cry until it rolled over every 
village and city and hamlet of the North: '• this Union is 
dissolved V Fellow citizens, I can tell them, that we are 
the Sampson, that will take hold of the pillars of the temple 



80 AIM OF THE CONSPIRACY, 

of their idolatry, and pull it down upon them, and crush them 
beneath its fragments." 

Alas! for the " Sunny South ;" alas! fur the Nation of 
the United States; alas! for the cause of Republican 
Institutions; alas! for Christian Civilization, in this 
nineteenth century ! that these madmen would not listen to 
the warning entreaties of one, in whom they have proved 
their trust, by appointing him to he the Vice-president of 
the Southern Confederacy, when in November hist, he thus 
appealed to them : — " Our first parents were tempted in the 
Garden of Eden. They believed that their eyes would bo 
opened, and that they would become as Gods. In an evil 
hour they yielded. I look upon this country, with our 
institutions, as the Eden of the world, the Paradise of tho 
universe. It may he that out of it we may become greater 
and more prosperous; but I am candid and sincere in 
telling you, that I fear if we rashly evince passion, and with- 
out sufficient cause shall take this step, that, instead of 
becoming greater or more peaceful, prosperous, and happy, 
at no distant day we shall commence cutting one another's 
throats, and instead of becoming gods, we shall become 
demons." 

II.— The Aim. 

What now is the real Aim of this desperate and deter- 
mined Faction, — the development of whose Conspiracy wo 
have traced ? 

Its aim is the permanent establishment and boundless diffu- 
sion of the Slave System, — the construction of a Confederacy, 
based upon the one fundamental principle of the Divine 
right of Slavery. — a nominal Republic, destined soon to he 
transformed into a vast Slave Empire, covering the whole 
western world, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the. 
Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea to the snows of 
Canada. 

1. The vital force of the Secession movement is to be. 
found in a fanatical faith, that the Slave System is the. 
Heaven appointed form of human society. Extraordinary 



SLAVERY THE CIVILTZER 31 

and incredible as it may appear, the Oligarchy of Southern 
Slave-holders assume to be the peculiar and exclusive leaders 
of Christian Civilization. An able Southern writer says : — - 
" He has not analyzed the subject of Secession lightly, nor 

1>robed it to the bottom, who supposes that the real quarrel 
letween North and South is about the Territories, or the 
decisions of the Supreme Court, or even the Constitution 
itself The antagonism is fundamental and ineradic- 
able. The true seciet of it lies in the total reversion of 
public opinion, which has occurred in both sections of the 
country, withiu the last quarter of a century, on the subject 
of Slavery. .... '1 he Pro-Slavery sentiment is of recent 
development It is more recent than any of the great in- 
ventions, which have created the distinctive forms of out: 
modern civilization ; it is more recent than any of the 
great innovations of thought, which now agitate mankind. 
... In opposition to the prevailing sentiment of the North, 
we believe that men are created neither free nor equal. Man 
is born dependant : and the very first step in civilization 
was for one man to enslave another. A state of Slavery has 
brought a disciplinary ordeal for every people, who have 

ever been developed beyond the savage condition Wo 

anticipate no terminus to the institution of Slavery 

The Pro- Slavery sentiment is unconquerable. It will be 
more and more suspicious of encroachment and jealous of 
its rights ; it will submit to no restriction, and scouts the 
possibilitv of ultimate extinction. Nothing will satisfy us 
but a radi3al change of opinion, or at least of political action, 
throughout the Northern States. The relation of M aster 
and slave must be recognised as right and just, as national, 
and perpetual. . . . Let us take counsel of our duty and 
our honour, and not of our danger and our fears ; let us act 
calmly, wiselv, bravely; let us invoke the guardian spirit of 
ancestral virtue, and the blessing of Almighty God. If 
we succeed in establishing, as we shall, a vast, opulent, 
happy and glorious Slave-holding Piepublic throughout tropi- 
cal America, future generations will arise, and call us 
blessed." 

Again, another Southern writer says : — " Abolish Slavery 



S3 THE GLORIES OF SLAVERY. 

and we break up the Commerce of the civilized world ; we 
destroy the manufactures ai>d combined shipping interests 
of Europe and America; we throw the white man, on both 
continents, out of employment, and cause anarchy, revolu- 
tion and internecine war, , to usurp the paths of peaceful 
commerce, progress and Christian advancement. The 
Northern States, without manufactures, without commerce, 
would present one universal scene of waste and desolation. 
Ruin would become the watchword of every civilized state. . . . 
These are sober, solemn portentous truths. Look at them. 
Place in the hands of every man and woman books, written 
in elucidation and defence of Slavery — convince every white 
man of the laud, that Slavery is a wise, a humane, necessary 
and glorious institution, in which every one, rich or poor, 
is vitally interested ; and thereby sweep away, once and for 
ever, the low and misinformed popular feeling of the 
American people, against what is commonly called the ' Slave 
Trade.' which is really the transfer of beastly savage negroes 
of Africa, from their Paganistic Slavery there to the Heaven- 
ordained and Heaven-approved system of Christian slavery 
here. Do this, — repeal the restrictive laws of Congress. — 
obey the behests of Heaven, like humane Christians, to make 
slaves of the heathen. — and in due time the glorious results- 
will be manifested, for the smiles of Deity will be upon the 
work." 

We shall now be prepared to appreciate correctly the 
amazing speech of the Hon. A. H. Stephens, the so- 
called '• Vice-president of the Confederate Stites," delivered 
at Savannah, March 21, 1861. "The new Constitution,** 
he says, *' has put at rest for ever all agitating questions, 
relating to our peculiar institutions. African Slavery, as it 
exists among us, is the proper status of the negro, in our 
form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the 

late rupture and present revolution The prevailing 

ideas, entertained by Jefferson and most of the leading 
statesmen, at the time of the formation of the old Constitu- 
tion, were that: — the enslavement of the African was in 
violation of the laws of nature ; — that it was wrong iu 
principle, socially, morally and politically. It was an evil, 



SLAVERY THE CORNE« STONE. 88 

they knew not well how to deal with. But the general 
opinion of the men of that day was, that somehow or other, 
in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanes- 
cent and pass away These ideas, however, were 

fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of 
the equality of races. This was an error ; it was a sandy 
foundation for the government built upon it, and when the 
storm came and the wind blew, it fell. 

'• Our new government is founded upon exactly the oppo- 
site ideas. Its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests. 
upon the great truth, that the negro is not the equal of the- 
white man, that Slavery — subordination to the superior race 
— is his natural and moral condition. (Applause by the 
Savannah audience). This, our new government, is the first 
m the history of the world, based upon this great physical, 

philosophical and moral truth The great objects of 

humanity are best attained, when conformed to Gods laws 
and decrees, in the formation of governments, as well as in 
all things eke. Our Confederacy is founded upon principles, 
in strict conformity with these laws. This stone, which was 
rejected by the first builders, in our new edifice is become 
the chief stone Ob' the corner." (Applause by the Savan- 
nah audience). 

Thus the religious consecration of the Slave System, as 
the providential agent of Christian Civilization, is the funda- 
mental aim of Secession. 

9. The seed of this new Tree of Life, being thus planted in 
a congenial soil, cannot but spring up into a mighty growth,, 
beneath whose wide-spread boughs all nations must rejoice. 

And first, its blessings should be extended to such repen- 
tant sinners of the North, as may be ready to receive its 
beneficent influences. " The process of disintegration," says 
Mr. Stephens, "in the old Union may be expected to go on, 
with almost absolute certainty. We are now the nucleus of 
a power, which, if true to ourselves, out destiny and high 
mission, will become the controlling power of this continent. 
To what extent accessions will go on, in the process of 
time, or where they will end, the future must determine. 
So far as it concerns the States of the old Union, they will 
• c 



34 THE SLAVE REPUBLIC. 

come in upon no such principle of " re-comtruction " as is 
now spoken of, but upon that of re-organization and new 
assimilation ... Organized upon principles of perfect jus- 
tice and right, seeking amity and friendship with all other 
powers, I see no obstacles in the way of our Confederation's 
upward and onward progress. < >ur growth, by accession 
from other States, will depend greatly upon whether we 
present to the world, as 1 trust we shall, a better government 
than that to which the) belong. If we do this, North Caro- 
lina, Tennessee and Arkansas cannot hesitate; neither can 
Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri. They will necessarily 
gravitate to us, by an imperious law. We made ample pro- 
vision in our Constitution, for the admission of other States. 
It is more guarded, and wisely so I think, than the old Con- 
stitution ; — but not too guarded to receive them, as fast as it 
may be proper. Looking at the distant future, — and perhaps 
not very distant either, — it is not beyond the range of possi- 
bility and even of probability, that all the great States of 
the North-west shall gravitate this way. Should they do so, 
our doors are wide enough to receive thera ; but not until 
they are ready to assimilate with us in principle !" 

Elsewhere we are told by the Secessionists, that they will 
condescend to receive even Pennsylvania and New York into 
their fraternity. But Mr Rhett assures us, that, on no terms 
will they tolerate the intrusion of Puritan Yankees. The 
poor, deserted, New England States must, in their desolate 
bereavement, find such consolation as they can, in re-an- 
nexation to Great Britain ! So opens the glorious future 
for the "re-organized" Republic of the United Slave States ! 

But the good work of Christianizing and civilizing man- 
kind cannot end here. A thorough internal reform is to be 
introduced throughout all institutions of the great Slave- 
holding Republic. Mr. F. P. Blair, of Missouri, who has 
already been quoted, tells us — that " The Chiefs who brood 
over the scheme of a new government, in the South, have in 
view to provide against a danger, arising from the inenass 
of their white population, holding no Slaves, and destitute of 
lands or employment. This multitude, oppressed by the 
competition of slavery, have votes, and may at some time 



THE POOR WHITES. 85 p 

learn to use them, for their own deliverance. They have 
however, been most effectually disfranchised in many of the 
Slave States, by giving a vast preponderance, in the legis- 
lative representation, to the slave-holding counties over 
those in which there are few Slaves. . . . These non- 
slave-holders will continue to endure the oppression, that 
the presence of Slavery obliges them to encounter, while 
bare subsistence is obtainable. While hunting, fishing and 
occasional jobs, or little tenements held at will on wasted 
fields, or the wilderness among the hills, supply food, they 
may submit to their fate, like stoics in despair. But when 
they are driven to the other alternative, of seducing the 
Slaves to steal for their support, there will be danger of 
convulsion." Mr. Blair next suggests that these poor whites 
of the South may be compelled by the Slave Oligarchy, "to 
take refuge in the Peonage system of Mexico, — where the 
whole labouring population receive food and raiment from 
the land-holder, and as debtors bind themselves and families 
to his estate, to work out a constant accumulating debt, 
making the bondage hereditary. Or else, they must be 
driven from their native land to the Territories, for new 
homes, — where it is proposed to follow up the "colonial 
system" for the South, and pour in successive cargoes of 
Africans to create new Slave States, and to subject the white 
labourers, again and again, to the same hard alternative." 

But neither the kind design of reclaiming the Free States, 
from the fanatic follies of abolitionists to the benignant 
morals and manners of. Slavery, nor the magnanimous 
transformation of the poor whites into Peons, are sufficient 
to satisfy the philanthropic aspirations of the Slave-holding 
Oligarchy. They feel themselves providentially summoned, 
to be the pioneers and heralds of this new form of Christian 
Civilization, far and wide, — throughout the Western world. 

In a speech reported in the Augusta Constitutionalist, during 
the summer of 1856, Hon. A. H. Stephens, pre-eminently the 
Statesman of the " Southern Confederacy," thus declared : — 
" Negro Slavery is but in its infancy. It is still a problem 
of our Government. Our fathers did not comprehend it. 
I grant, that all the public men of the South were once 



86 



SLAVERY EXPANSION. 



against it. But they did not understand the suhject. It is 
for us to meet trie questions of to-day. with the firmness, 
which our fathers showed. The problem is yet unsolved. 
Ours is not only the best, but it is the only government, foun- 
ded upon the principles of nature. All Government 
comes from the Creator. Statesmen have never, heretofore, 
looked to the principle of gradation. Our Government is 
the only one founded upon.it. Jt is not for us to inquire 
into the great mysteries of nature, and it is most foolish to 
attempt to make things better than God made them. States- 
men and private men should take things, as God designed 
them to be. We ought to increase and expand our institutions. 
All nations, when they cease to grow, begin to die. We 
should then endeavour to expand and grow. Central 
America, Mexico, are all open to us." He then goes on to 
say, that he does not believe that " the country is large 
enough;" — that "a diversity of interests will strengthen the 
government, better than if all were homogeneous ;" — that 
he " looks forward to the acquisition of Cuba, but was never 
in favour of paying Spain much money for it, — not more 
than one or two millions of dollars ;" — that " if Cuba wants 
to come in to the Union, he would not ask leave from Spain, 
but would be in favour of repealing the neutrality laws, so 
as to give our people a chance to help her in her wish." 
And as showing that Mr. Stephens maintains his view as to 
the absolute necessity, that Slavery should grow, in order 
to live, unmodified in 1861, he is reported in the Columbus 
Sun, as having said, at President Davis' reception, in quite 
a pointed manner, when alluding to the probable expansion 
of the Confederate States, — "that our territory might extend 
far down to the tropical country of Central America, — taking 
in the whole — all united and based upon the fundamental idea, 
that the negro is inferior to the white race, and that Slavery 
must be extended and perpetuated." So speaks the leading 
exponent of the Southern Oligarchy. 

But now to prove that Mr. Stephens is nowise alone in 
these glowing visions of the future, but that he merely ex- 
presses the common wish and collective purpose of Southern 
Politicians universally, let me quote a passage, from a. 



SLAYEBY EXPANSION. 37 

speech of Hon. A. G. Brown, U.S. Senator from Mississippi, 
-delivered in "Tammany Hall."' New York, March 14th, 
1859 : — " I am a pro-Slavery man. I believe that Slavery is 
of Divine origin ; that God decreed it from the foundation 
of the world ; that the African race from their creation were 
doomed to be slaves to the white man. And my impression 
is, that every one of you would be better off, if he had a 
negro to wait upon him. ... I want Cuba, for the 
• extension of Slavery. . . . Cuba must and shall be ours. 
The decree has gone forth, and there exists nowhere on earth 
a power to resist it. The only remaining question for us to 
consider, is by what means shall we make the acquisition. 
Three modes have been proposed. First, by purchase ; 
that I regard as the most honourable. Second, by conquest ; 
and that I regard as the most certain. Third, from the 
agency of the mysterious operation, known in political 
nomenclature, as '•filibusterism ;" and that I regard as the 
most probable. But whether by one or the other, or all 
these agencies combined, I say again, that Cuba must and 
shall be oues. If Spain be indisposed to sell, I would seize 
Cuba ; — seize it as indemnity for the past, and negotiate for 
future security. ... It may be asked, what do we want 
of Cuba ? I will tell you what we want of it. We want it 
for territorial expansion. If you had listened to those poli- 
ticians, who tell you that your territory is already large enough 
or too large, you never would have had Louisiana, or Texas, 
or California. I do not fear the consequences of territorial 
expansion." Again in a recent speech to his constituents in 
Mississippi, this same Senator Brown said : — "I want Cuba ; 
I want Tamaulipas, Potosi, and one or two other Mexican 
States ; and I w r ant them all for the same reason, for the 
planting and spreading of Slavery. And a footing in Central 
. America will powerfully aid us, in acquiring those other 
States. Yes ! I want these countries for the spread of 
Slavery ! I would spread the blessings of Slavery, like, the 
religion of our Divine Master, to the uttermost ends of the earth. 
And rebellious and wicked, as the Yankees have been, I 
"would extend it even to them. . . . Whether we can obtain 
;the territory, while the Union lasts, I do not know. I fear we 



'38 A TROPICAL SL AYE EMPIRE. 

can not. But I would make an honest effort. And if we 
fail, I would go out of the Union, and try it there. I speak 
plainly ; I would make a refusal to acquire territory, because 
it is to be Slave Territory, a cause for Disunion." 

Innumerable proofs, indeed, might be offered from speeches 
of Southern Statesmen, in Congress and elsewhere, — from 
debates and resolutions in Southern conventions, — and 
editorials in Southern presses, — that it has been, for a quarter 
of a century or more, the established policy of the Slave 
Oligarchy to absorb the whole of Mexico, Central America, 
the chief West-India Islands, and even South America down 
to the valley of the Amazon, that out of these vast regions 
there might be organized a mighty Slave Empire, — which 
by its peculiar production of cotton, sugar, and tropical 
fruits — by its exhaustless mineral wealth in gold, silver, &c. t 
and by its commanding position between the Atlantic and 
Pacific oceans, — might hold the balance of potver between 
leading commercial nations, and so dictate terms to the whole 
civilized world. 

To show, how far reaching have been the plans of these 
speculative political schemers, it is well known, that when 
Mr. Calhoun held control of the State Department, in 
Washington, during the time of Mr. Tyler's Administration, 
an agent was dispatched by him to St. Domingo, for the end 
of securing, for the United States, a foothold in the island, 
and an influence over the Dominican councils. Intent, as 
lie always was, upon securing the perpetuity of the Slave 
institution, Mr. Calhoun foresaw, that the island of St. 
Domingo would become an invaluable, if not an indispensable, 
outpost for future aggrandizement. And it is now notorious, 
that the whole movement of the infamous Walker, in 
Nicaragua and Central America, was merely one branch of 
this immense intrigue to establish all around the Gulf of 
Mexico, and upon the Isthmus of Panama, the Slave system. 

To complete and sum up the proof of this design, the 
following extract is given from the Columbus Sun : — " The 
South must occupy Mexico to prevent the Abolitionists, from 
getting on the Southern border. The labour^system of 
Mexico, after the conquest or acquisition, should be the same 



INCREASE OF AFRICAN STOCK. 39 

as that of the South. It is essential that slave holders, with 
slaves, should go and work the rich soil of Mexico. Manifest 
destiny and inexorable necessity decree it. ... A cordon of 
Free States must never surround the God-given institution 
of Slavery The beautiful tree must not be girdled, that it 
may wither and die." Thus world wide, then, has for long 
years been the Slave holders' scheme of aggrandizement. 

3. But how was this scheme to be effectually carried out? 
Whence could the Southerners gain the population needed 
to take possession of the •' Land of Promise." towards which 
Providence seemed to welcome them? The speech of Mr. 
Stephens, already quoted, frankly confesses, that " we can 
divide Texas into five Slave States, and take in Chihuahua 
Sonora, etc., etc., if we have the slave population. ... As he 
said in 1850, so he would repeat now, — there is very little 
prospect of the South settling any territory outside of Texas ; 
in fact no prospect at all, unless we can increase our 
African stock. It is as plain as any thing can be, thar, 
unless the number of African Stock be increased, we might 
as well abandon the race with our brethren of the North, in 
the colonization of the territories. If there are no more 
Slave States, it is not because of abolitionism, but simply for 
want of people to settle them. We cannot make states 
without people ; and Slave States cannot be made without 
Africans. . . . It is useless to wage war about abstract rights. 
or to quarrel and abuse each other of unsoundness, unless we 
get more Africans." 

This confession certainly has the merit of candour. It 
seems even child-like in its simple sincerity ; and is actually 
refreshing in contrast with the hypocritical pretence, that the 
Secessionists and the Southern Confederacy have no design 
of re-opening the Slave Trade. It is true, that Mr. Jefferson 
Davis did veto the bill, for taking off all restrictions upon 
the infamous traffic in men. But who is so stupid, as for an 
instant to dream, that this seeming self-restraint and abnega- 
tion were from scruples of conscience, pleadings of humanity, 
or relenting in the Slave-holder's policy. This preposterous 
veto was a mere trick to pacify the Border States, and to 
veil the real purpose of the Confederacy from the eyes of 



40 W. L. YANCEY. 

indignant Christendom. Mr. W. L. Yancey, in a speech 
delivered at Montgomery, and reported in the Advertiser of 
January 25, 1 86 1 , betrayed the secret thus : " For one, I do not 
doubt," he says, '• that one great and prime obstacle to the 
earlier movement of the Border States in favour of Secession, 
has been a wide spread belief, that the Gulf States 
designed in seceding to establish a Government, differing 
essentially from the Federal Constitution, and especially, 
that the African Slave Trade would be re-opened. I have 
received many letters from distinguished gentlemen, in 
Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, upon that 
very point, — informing me that were it not for the fear of the 
new Confederacy re opening the African Slave Trad p. there 
would be a much stronger and more general movement in 
those States, in favour of dissolution." It was necessary 
to gain time, until the Border States should be entangled in 
the toils of Secession, beyond possible escape, and until the 
Commissioners of the Slave Confederacy had obtained, by 
flattery and fawning by bribery and bullying, or by some means 
or other, a recognition from Foreign Courts. Then the mask 
might be dropped, [f the Statesmen of Great Britain choose 
to deceive themselves into the belief, that the Commissioners 
from Montgomery tell the truth, when they imply, that no 
attempts will be made to re-open the Slave Trade, they are 
certainly willing to be hood-winked by the flimsiest disguise, 
that roguery ever wore. 

Who is Mr W. L Yancey, "Commissioner ?"' And what 
for years have been his flagrantly avowed principles and 
plans? Is he not the very man, who has made himself a 
" bye word and hissing,*' for his infamous declaration that: — 
"the South demanded as Free Trade in negroes from Africa, 
as the North enjoyed in Mules from Malta ?" Is he not the 
man who only two years since declared: — "We of Alabama 
want slaves to be cheap. We want to buy, not to sell them. 
It is a Virginia idea, that slaves ought to be high. Virginia 
wants 1,500 dollars each, for her negroes. TV e want to get 
them cheaper." "Cheap Negroes" has been his watch-word 
and banner, throughout his political career. And now does 
he dare iu the presence of honest and upright Statesmen of 






W. L. YANCEY. 41 

Great Britain, to affect that he does not seek a revival of the 
Slave Trade ? 

Out of his own mouth shall he be convicted. In a speech, 
•delivered at Columbia, South Carolina, July 8th, 1859, Mr. 
Yancey thus revealed his spirit and his aim : — " Of all the 
species of property, which existed at the time of the adoption 
of the time of the Constitution, Slave property was the only 
one, which our fathers deemed it necessary to protect against 
the aggressive attacks of fanaticism, by avowed provisions in 
the Constitution. Our fathers also apprehended in their day, 
.that they had not a sufficiency of State property. And the 
State of South Carolina — with one other (Georgia) refused to 
become part of the new Government, unless by the Constitu- 
tion she should be protected in the importation of African 
Slaves, until the year 1808. So vigilant in their guardianship 
of this institution were they, that it was provided there 
should be no amendment of the Constitution, which should 
deprive them of this right of importation. If you look into 
the Constitution you will find this provision, in its fifth 
article. It is there expressly said, that no amendment 
should affect that clause of the Constitution, which prohibi- 
ted congress from interdicting the Slave Trade. . . . The 
South does demand, — she will insist upon, — she will have, — 
.an equal protection for Slavery, with that given to all other 
.species of property. If she cannot get that protection in the 
Union, she will have it out of it. Under a proper interpreta- 
tion of, and action upon, the Constitution, the South could 
have kept equal position with the North, in settling our 
public domain, Until the year 1808, the South did possess 
equal power with the North, to settle our wild lands. The 
only difference between the two was in the fact, that the 
Constitution allowed the emigration of European labourers, 
which invaribly rlowecl in to Northern ports and settled 
Northern lands, while the same Constitution allowed to the 
South the importation of her labourers from the Continent 
of Africa. This power of increase on the part of the South 
was, until the year 1808, limited only by its power to pur- 
chase. The only limitation upon the emigration of free 
-labour into the Northern States was the ability of the oppressed 



42 CHIEF AIM OF SECESSION.' 

in Europe to pay for their passage to this land. But since 
1808, this power to increase its labour has been denied to 
the South, by the act of our Government. . . . Are we to 
submit quietly, to let this policy become the settled rule of 
Territorial legislation ? If ice do, we give up all hope of 
expansion. . . . How are we to disenthral ourselves ? . . . 
Can we have any hope of righting ourselves, and doing 
justice to ourselves, in the .Union. If there is such hope, 
it would be our duty to make the attempt. For one, I have 
no such hope. But I am determined to act with those who 
have such hope, as long, and only as long, as it may be 
reasonably indulged, — not so much with auy expectation that 
the South would obtain justice in the Union, as with the 
hope that by thus acting, there will be obtained unity among 
our people, in goisg out of the Union. If we remain in 
the Union, we must demand a repeal of every unconstitutional 
act, against the institution of Slavery. We must demand a 
repeal of the acts, of 180/ and 1819.' (The acts pronouncing 
the Slave Trade piracy.) . . . When we have obtained these 
demands within the Union, we may look to measures for the 
acquisition of new territories, fit for a Slave population. 
Without them the acquisition of such territories would but 
prove another curse to the South." 

Could a declaration more explicit, emphatic and conclu- 
sive be made, that the one grand aim of Secession is the 
Bevival of the African Slave Trade, for the end of extending 
the Slave system ? 

And that these are not the opinions of Mr. Yancey alone, 
let the eloquent and admirable speech of Mr. Clemens of 
Virginia, during the last Session of Congress, bear witness. 
" If Secession were allowed to be carried out," he said, " a 
Southern Confederacy would appear, from which every man 
would turn back affrighted and pale, — because it would be 
on the bloody hand, that his rights of property would have to 
depend. Slavery cannot expand rapidly, either with the 
Union or without the Union, so long as Slaves remain at 
their present high prices. The only mode by which Slavery 
t could ever expand, was to reduce the price, and have a new 
source of supply.. This is, in fact, the real design of the 



REVIVAL OF THE SLAVE TRADE. 4$ 

. Coast States." In proof of this, Mr Clemens referred to all 
Southern Conventions of late years, and cited the admissions 
of Messrs. Miles, Bonham, McKae, and Crawford, in the 
House of Representatives, to show that their one great pur- 
pose was the re-opening of the Slave Trade. 

In entire confirmation of this view, let the following 
extract from the Mobile 'Register of July 12th, ] 859, be given : 
— " The Institution of Slavery has been engaged, for nearly 
half a century, in a fierce and vital struggle with fanaticism. 
From perilous diseomforture, in the first onslaught and the 
early stages of the struggle, it has at length risen to conquer 
the vantage ground. It has rolled back the tide of assault, 
and lacks now but little of a complete and a conclusive victory. 
But one more effort is wanting to consummate the triumph. 
There is but one strong hold of its enemies, which remains to 
be carried, to finish its work and ensure its welfare. We 
refer to the existing prohibition of the African Slave 
Trade. . . . We are decidedly of opinion, that both the honour 
and the interests of the South require, that the Federal 
Statutes against the African Slave Trade should be 
repealed, and that the treaty complications of our Government 
with other Nations, denouncing the traffic and aiming at its 
prohibition, should be withdrawn. . . . Whatever may be 
the views of Southern people, as to the policy of re-opening 
the trade, should they continue tamely to acquiesce in those 
odious laws, and thus to stand convicted before the 
world, on their own tacit admission, of a magnitude of guilt 
characterized as equal to the atrocious crime of Piracy, . . . 
For our part, persuaded and convinced of the morality of 
Slavery, and devoted to.< it, as the beneficent source and. 
wholesome foundation of our prosperity, we chafe, with a> 
scarcely repressible impatience, under the degrading reflection 
which these Slave Trade Statutes cast upon our institution 
and our people. . . .. Yet thorough as are our convictions 
Upon the merits of the question, we are satisfied, that the 
time is not ripe for making ita political issue." 

The Time is not ripe ! Wilh the Statesmen, Merchants, 
Christians, People, of Great Britain ask themselves, "when the 
time will be ripe?" and give their answer accordingly, to the 



^44 SLAVERY THE AGENT OF CIVILIZATION. 

-"Commissioners" from the Slave-holding Confederacy. 

Proofs multiply on all sides, of this slowly matured, deeply 
cherished design, to tear off the convict's garb of disgrace 
• from the Slave Trade, to deck it with royal robes, and to raise 
it to a chief position of honour, as the grand Providential 
agency for diffusing Christian Civilization. For example in 
a letter from Charleston, South Carolina, dated August 28, 
1858, occurs this passage :-?*-" The Slave crew, part of whom 
were brought on in the Echo, from Key West, — were carried 
to our district gaol, this day, hand-cuffed. Thiuk of that t 
Twenty men, carried hand-cuffed through the streets, of a 
Slave-holding city, by the President of the Young Men's 
Christian Association. And for what? For purchasing 
negroes in Africa, and bringing them to the New World ; 
for rescuing undying souls from the night of heathen 
"barbarism, and transporting them into the full blaze of the 
Christianity of the nineteenth century." And the Charleston 
Courier of the same date says : — " Why should we send these 
negroes back? They are here, on the very threshold of 
Civilization. Shall we send them back to barbarism ? 
They are at the door of Christianity. Shall we send them 
hack to heathen darkness? They are almost within the 
pale of law and a social state. Shall we send them back to 
the realm, where there is no law but brute force?" 

Even these wild ravings, however, are surpassed by the fol- 
lowing astounding speech, delivered in the Democratic Con- 
vention, at Charleston, on Tuesday, May 1st, 1860, by Mr. 
Gaulden, of Georgia, who said: — "I am a Southern States 
Hights man ; I am an African Slave Trader ; I am one of 
those Southern men, who believe that Slavery is right, 
morally, religiously, socially and politically. I believe, that 
the institution of Slavery has done more for this country, 
-more for Civilization, than all other interests put together ! . . . 
You have cut off the supply of Slaves ; you have crippled the 
'institution of Slavery in the States, by your unjust laws. . . . 
I would ask my friends of the South to come up, in a 
-proper spirit, and request of our Northern friends to give 
"us all our rights, and to take off the ruthless restrictions, 
<which cut off the supply of Slaves from foreign lands. Aa 



THE SLAVE TEADEE A MISSIONABT. 45^ 

a matter of right and justice to the South, T would ask the 
Democracy of the North to grant us this thing. And I 
believe, they have the patriotism and honesty to do it, — 
because it is right in itself. I tell you, Fellow Democrats, 
that the African Slave Trader is the true Union-man. I tell 
you, that the Slave trading of Virginia is more immoral, . 
more unchristian, in every possible point of view, than that 
African Slave trade, — which goes to Africa and brings a 
worthless heathen here, christianizes him, makes him useful,, 
and sends him and his posterity down the stream of time, 

to join in the blessings of civilization Come with 

me to my plantation, and I will show you some darkies that 
I bought in Maryland, some in Virginia, some in Delaware, 
some in Florida, some in North Carolina ; and I will also 
show you the pure African, the noblest Roman of them all! It 
has been my fortune to buy a few negroes in Virginia, for 
whom I have had to pay from 1,000 to 2,000 dollars a-head, 
— when I could go to Africa, and buy better negroes, for 50 
dollars a piece ! I represent the African Slave Trade interest 
of Georgia ! I am proud of the jiosition I occupy, in that 
respect ! — I believe, that the African Slave trader is a true 
Missionary, and a true Cheistian." 

But wonderful as is the extravagance of these statements, 
indicating an epidemic insanity in the South, in the support 
of Slavery, — they seem tame when compared with the 
deliberately argued Protest, of Mr. L. W. Spratt of South 
Carolina, against Mr. Davis's veto upon the Slave Trade 
bill. Mr. Spratt glories in the fact, that he has been connec- 
ted with the Slave Trade measure, from the outset, and has 
taken a leading part in its advancement. And he urgently 
insists, that the least attempt to check the revival of the 
Slave Trade, would necessitate " another revolution," and the 
" overturn of the new Confederacy." Thus does he prove 
himself to be the Secessionist of the Secessionists. For, to 
him, the whole Disunion movement is concentrated, in the 
aim to revive the Slave Trade. He begins with declaring, 
that "the contest between the North and South is not 
between geographical sections, but between two forms of 
society, which have become established, — the one at the. 



46 slavery versus DEMOCRACY. 

North and the other at the South ; the one embodying the 
principle, that equality is the right of man, the other that it 
is the right of equals only ; the one using white labour, 
where service is voluntary, the other slave labour, which is 
involuntary; the one permitcing elective franchise to the 
labouring classes, the other refusing it." 

He then goes on to say, that " the object of the dissolution 
of the Union is an effort of the Slave Society to emancipate 
itself. " This has been the vital agent,' 1 he avows, " of this 
great controversy. It has energized the arm of every man, 
who acts a part in this great drama. We may shrink from 
recognition of the fact ; we may decline to admit the source 
of our authority ; we may refuse to Slavery an invitation to 
the table, which it has itself so bountifully spread ; but not 
for that will it remain powerless or unhonoured. It may 
be abandoned by Virginia, Maryland, Missouri. South 
Carolina may herself refuse to espouse it, by admitting 
labour from the North or from our seaboard. . . . But 
concentrated in the States upon the Gulf, it will make a 
stand. Condensed to the point, at which the slave's labour 
transcends the wants of Agriculture, it will flow to other 
objects. It will lay its giant grasp upon still other depart- 
ments of industry. Its every step will be exclusive. It will 
be the unquestioned law of each domain, on which it enters. 
With that perfect economy of resources, that just application 
of power, that concentration of force, that security of order, 
which results to Slavery, from the permanent direction of 
its best intelligence. — there is no other form of human labour, 
that can stand against it. And it will build itself a home, 
and erect for itself at some point, within the present limits 
of the Southern States, a structure of temporal power and 
grandeur, a glorious Confederacy of States, that will stand 
aloft and serene forages. — amid the anarchy of Democracies, 
that vill reel around it. 

" But it may be, that to this end, another revolution may 
be necessary ! It is to be apprehended, that this contest 
between Democracy and Slavery is not yet over. It is cer- 
tain, that both forms of society exist within the limits of the 
Southern States. Both are distinctly developed in Virginia ; 



SLAVERY VerSUS DEMOCRACY. 47 

and, whether we perceive the fact or not, the war already 
rages in that State. There are about 500,000 Slaves to 
about 1,009,000 whites. And as, at least as many Slaves, as 
masters, are necessary to the constitution of Slave society, 
about &00,000 of the white population only are in legitimate 
relation to the Slaves. The rest are in excess. Without 
legitimate connection with the slaves, they are in competi- 
tion with them. They constitute not a part of Slave Society, 
but of Democratic Society. In so far as there is euch con- 
nection, the State is Slave ; in so far as there is not, it is 

Democratic The political action of Virginia is at 

present paralyzed by this unnatural contest, and as causes 
of disintegration may continue, must continue, if the Slave 
trade he not re-opened; as there will still be a market at the 
South for her slaves, and as there will still be pauper 
labour from abroad to supply the place, it is to be feared, 
— that there the Slave system must ultimately fail, and that 
this great State must lose the institution and bend her 
proud spirit to the yoke of another Democratic triumph." 

After lamenting that even South Carolina is not safe, — 
as thousands of her slaves have within ten years been drawn 
away from Charleston, by the attractive prices of the West, 
he continues : — " thus it appears that the contest is not 

ended with the dissolution of the Union And 

having achieved one revolution to escape Democracy at 
the North, Slavery must still achieve another to escape it 
at the South. That it will ultimately triumph, none can 
doubt. It will become redeemed and vindicated. And the 
only question now to be determined is, shall there be another 
revolution to that end." 

Mr. Spratt then brings his whole argument to bear upon 
the Slave Trade, thus : — " The people of the Cotton States 
want labour. They know, that Whites and Slaves cannot 
■work together. They have no thought of abandoning their 
slaves, that they may get white labour. And they want 
slaves therefore from the Seaboard States, — if the Slave 
Trade be not open. But they cannot heartily embrace a 
policy, which, while it will tend to degrade the Seaboard 
States to the conditions of a Democracy, will compel them 



48 THE SLAVE TRADE A TEST. 

to pay double and treble prices for their labour." . . . But, 
if not from the Seaboard States, - whence then shall 
the Slaves be brought? Cautiously, yet courageously, 
according to his convictions, Mr. Spratt thus answers the 
question : "We do not propose to re-open the Slave Trade ; 
we merely propose to take no action, on the subject. I truly 
think, we want more slaves. We want them for the proper 
cultivation of our soil, for the just developement of our 
resources, for the proper constitution of society. We have 
no seamen for our commerce, and no operatives for the arts. 
But it is not for these ends, that I now oppose restrictions on 
the Slave Trade. I oppose them from the wish to emanci- 
pate our institution. I regard the Slave Trade as the test 
of its integrity. If that be right, then Slaveiy is right. But 
not without. . . . Believing then, that this is the test of 
Slavery, and that the institution cannot be right, if the trade 
be not, — £ regard the constitutional prohibition as a great 
calamity. ... It is only upon the supposition, that it is 
wrong in principjle, wrong radically, that it is becoming in 
the general government to take organic action to arrest it. 
The action of the Confederacy is then a declaration of that 
fact. And it were vain to sustain the institution, in face of 
such admission to its prejudice." 

But if the Slave Trade is to be made free, what will be the 
action of European powers ? Mr. Spratt thinks that, "it 
argues a pitiable want of intelligence and independence, and 
an abject political spirit to suppose, that a rerival of the 
Slave Trade will affect the relations of the Southern 
Confederacy to the great powers. France and England trade 
in Coolies, and neither will have the hardihood to affirm, 
that between that and the Slave Trade there is any essential 
difference. Practising the one, they cannot war with us,, 
for practising the other. Nor in fact do they urge war on 
the Slave Trade ; Spain permits the trade at Cuba, though 
she professes to prohibit it ; Portugal and Turkey do not 
even so much. Even Eugland lends her ships to keep the 
Slave Trade open in the Black Sea, And almost every slave, 
bought in Africa, is paid for in English fabrics, to the profit 
of the English merchant, and with the knowledge of the 



FREE INDIAN NEGROES. 49 

British Government. In view of these facts, it is "simple 
to suppose that European States will practise sentiment, at 
the expense of interest. And have they interest in the 
suppression of the Slave Trade? They will submit to ant 
terms of intercourse with the Slave Republic, in eonsider- 
tion of its markets and its products. An increase of Slaves 
will increase the market and supply. And they will pocket 
their philanthropy and their profits together." 

Thus cooly contemptuous is the estimate, with which this 
prime leader of Secession regards the political principle and 
the commercial morality of Great Britain and of France. 
It is a startling evidence of the strange perversion of heart 
and mind engendered by the Slave system, that the Oligarchy 
have planned to entrap the conscience of Christian Europe, 
by a trick which even gamblers of the stock exchange would 
scorn. " Grant us Free Trade in Negroes, and we in turn 
will grant Free Trade for your Cotton and Iron, your Silks 
and Wine !" Such is their proferred reciprocal treaty of 
alliance. Under influence of the monomania, — that " Cotton 
is King,' '—they have felt full assurance that this bargain 
would be pronounced a fair one, by all but Abolition fanatics. 
Indeed, so confident have the Secessionists been of foreign 
welcome and encouragement, that one explanation of the 
arrogant presumption, with which they have made war upon 
the National Government, is the hope of armed aid in the 
struggle. 

In proof that there is not the slightest exaggeration in a 
statement, at first sight so extravagant in absurdity, let the 
following extract of a letter in the " Richmondj Examiner." 
from the pen, as the editor tells his readers, of " one of the 
most accomplished gentlemen and gifted writers! in the 
South," bear witness : — "A treaty of reciprocal free trade, 
between the South and either Great Britain or France, would 
secure to the treating power at once the monopoly of the 
cotton crop of the w T orld, and the monopoly of the Southern 
market for manufactures. In consideration of such a treaty, 
either of the two Powers named could afford to lend us, free 
of charge, as large a naval and military force, as we should 
require, for purposes either defensive or offensive .... 

D 



50 PROPOSED ALLIANCES. 

England is the natural ally of the South, whose carrying trade 
would give employment to her shipping, and whose monopoly 
of cotton-growing would give her the entire monopoly of the 
world's commerce. The North is the natural enemy of 
England, because it is her only present rival in manufactures 
and shipping. A direct free trade with Great Britain would 
be more profitable to the South, than with any other power ; 
but the Queen of England is as arrant an Abolitionist, as 
Exeter Hall can boast, among its proteges. The influence 
of Exeter Hall, moreover, may be strong enough in Great 
Britain to defeat an alliance with us. In this event our 
recourse would obviously be to France ; whose Emperor, 
able and far-seeing, and as free from cant and fanaticism as 
Victoria is full of it, has constructed a navy superior to Great 
Britain, and built up a merchant marine of immense magni- 
tude, eager for enterprise, and needing only a commerce to 
carry. France is ready to embark in commercial under- 
takings of any magnitude, but is excluded in almost every 
latitude and sea by the prior monopoly of England. And 
alliance with the Southern States would at once furnish her 
that employment for her ships, and that market for her 
manufactures, of which her Emperor has been so long and 
anxiously in search. For the privilege of this trade, he 
would gladly allow us the use of a portion of the vast army 
and navy, which he is obliged to keep on foot, but for which 
he has no employment. He could afford to lend them to us, 
and to maintain them at his own cost on this continent, for 
the freedom of our trade. His fleets could be maintained 
more cheaply in the Chesapeake, and in the Gulf, than at 
Cherbourg or Marseilles ; and his armies could be fed with 
less cost by half, at Baltimore and our "Western granaries of 
Louisville and St. Louis, than in those mammoth encamp- 
ments, which he maintains in France. A treaty of reciprocal 
free trade, between France and the Southern United States, 
would paralyze the whole business of the North, and cause 
grass to grow in the streets of New York. England would 
of course, make determined resistance to such an alliance, 
but Russia would support France against England. The 
politics of this Continent would thus become linked inextri- 



HOW WILL IT END ? 51 

cably with the politics of Europe ; but the fault would not 
be ours ; and that would be infinitely better than the eternal 
din of Abolition cant, and never-ending homilies about the 
rights of the nigger." 

The aim of the Secession Conspiracy has thus been amply 
proved, by the avowals of its accredited leaders, to embrace 
these successive stages : — 

1. — The permanent establishment of Slavery, as the 
peculiarly Christian form of civilized society ; 

2 — The restoration, throughout the infidel and foolish 
Northern States, of its benignant sway ; 

3. — The expansion of the Slave Eepublic into a grand 
Slave Empire, throughout tropical America ; 

4. — Free Trade in African labour, in reciprocation for 
general Free Trade ; 

5. — Alliances, commercial, political, military and naval, 
with Great Britain and France, for the perpetuation and 
diffusion of Slavery. 

Have the Montgomery Commissioners, since their arrival 
in Europe, proposed this scheme ? 

III.— End. 

We have seen that this Civil war originated in a Conspiracy 
of the Slave-holding Oligarchy ; and that its aim is the perma- 
ment establishment and limitless diffusion of the Slavery 
system. What now, we ask, will be its Eud ? 

To answer justly this question we must take into considera- 
tion — the fundamental principles of Constitutional Law, 
in the United States ; the comparative strength of posi- 
tion of the two parties to the controvesy ; and the relations 
of the problem to be solved, to the tendencies of Commerce 
and Industry, and to the spirit of Christian Civilization 
in the present age. 

1. — And first of the Constitutional Aspects of Secession. 

It is often asked in Great Britain ; — " why should not the 
Government of the United States have permitted the Seced- 
ing States peacefully to withdraw and to organize a Govern- 
ment of their own ? Had they not an acknowledged right 
according to the established usages of the Nation, and the 



5ft PEACEFUL SECESSION. 

principles of Self Government, asserted in the Declaration of 
Independence, to ' alter and abolish' their relations to the 
Union, and to ' institute a new government in such form as 
to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and 
happiness ?' Is not all power inherent in the People ? 
Are not ' all Free Governments founded upon their authority 
and constituted for their benefit ?' If the South had found 
1 their liberties endangered' by the Government of the United 
States, and ' if all other means of redress had proved in their 
judgment ineffectual,' had they not ' undubitable, unalien- 
able, and indefeasible right ' to reconstitute their own State 
Governments, and organize a Confederacy of States ' accor- 
to the will and by the consent of the People ?' Why then 
did not the Government of the United States permit them 
peacefully to withdraw '?" 

Enough, perhaps too much, has been already said to prove 
beyond reasonable doubt, that whatever may now be professed 
to the contrary, " peaceful Secession " formed no part of the 
programme of the Conspirators. Indeed it is an absurd farce 
to pretend it. Waiving that consideration then, though 
making not the slightest concession in regard to it, let me 
pass on to say, that there was one method, and but one, of 
insuring peaceful Secession. It was the very one, suggested 
during the past Session of Congress, by leading republican 
statesmen, and by the chief public organs of the Republican 
party — the very one recommended in his Inaugural Address, 
by the Republican President, when he says : — 

" This country, with its institutions, belongs to the People, 
who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the 
existing government, they can exercise then- constitutional 
right of amending it, or then revolutionary right to dismem- 
ber or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact, that 
many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having 
the National Constitution amended. While I make no 
recommendation of amendment, I recognize the full authority 
of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in 
either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself. 
And I should under existing circumstances, favour rather 
than oppose, a fair opportunity being afforded to the people 



A NATIONAL CONVENTION. 53 

for acting upon it. I will venture to add, that to me the 
convention mode seems preferable." . . . 

What is this Convention mode? The answer is to be 
found in Article Fifth of the Constitution, in these words : — 
" The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall 
deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this 
Constitution, or on the application of the legislatures of two- 
thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for propos- 
ing amendments, which in either case shall be valid to all 
intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when 
ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several 
States, or conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or 
the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the 
Congress." 

Why did not South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Florida, Louisiana, Texas, instead of seizing upon the forts, 
arsenals, and custom houses of the United States, first call 
for a National Convention ? It was the one constitutional, 
loyal, patriotic, fraternal, peaceful method of gaining their 
ends. And there is strong reason for believing, that if they 
had manifested this generous trust in the justice and good 
feeling of their country-men, they would have been met in a 
perfectly cordial and equitable spirit, and that some peaceful 
arrangement might have been made for permitting them to 
try, to their own thorough satisfaction, their impolitic and 
impracticable experiment of a Slave-holding Republic. 

Always, however, one strict condition must have been 
obeyed, namely, that only by the will of the People of 
the Seceding States should these States withdraw from the 
Union. For the fourth Article of the Constitution, in 
section fourth, declares : — " That the United States shall 
guarantee to every State in the Union, a republican form 
of Government," — which Judge Story in his Commentaries 
on the Constitution interprets to mean : — that " the People 
of each State have a right to protection against the tyranny 
of a domestic Faction." The first point then to be settled 
was manifestly this : — " is it the c People * of the States, or is 
it a 'Faction,' who demand a dissolution of the Union ?" 
And the next was this : — " will the People of the United 



54 STATE EIGHTS. 

States acquiesce in this demand ?" It was by the people 
of the United States, that the Constitutional Union was 
organized. Only by that people, therefore, can the Consti- 
tution be abrogated and the Union dissolved. 

Until the will of the People had been thus declared, 
President Lincoln was absolutely bound by every obligation 
of duty or honour, to say, as he did ; — that, " no State, upon 
its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union ;" 
that, " resolves and ordinances, to that effect, are legally 
void ;" and that " acts of violence within any State, against 
the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary, 
or revolutionary, according to circumstances." He was 
imperatively bound to say, as he did, that " in view of the 
Constitution and Laws, the Union is unbroken," and that 
it was his " simple duty," to " take care, as the Constitution 
itself expressly enjoins, that the laws of the Union should 
be faithfully executed in all the states . . . unless the 
American People should, in some authoritative manner, 
direct to the contrary." 

That this is the only consistent and tenable view of 
Constitutional Law, in the United States, as applied to the 
insurrectionary movement calling itself " Secession," might 
be conclusively proved by a volume of testimony, drawn 
from the writings of Adams, Hamilton, Jay, Jefferson, 
Madison, and others too many to mention ; from the legal 
decisions of Chief Justice Marshall, and other great judicial 
authorities in -the Supreme Court of the United States; 
from the masterly Commentaries of Story and Kent ; from 
the unanswerable forensic arguments of Webster, Clay, 
and their great compeers in Congress ; from the national 
histories of Bancroft, Hildreth, Marshall, Sparks ; and 
finally from the all but unanimous declarations of leading 
Statesmen and Parties of the United States, through a half 
century and more of the Nation's existence. All conclusively 
testify, that the doctrine of " State Eights," logically 
embodying itself in " Secession," is a recent political heresy, 
— exclusively held, until now, by one small school of 
politicians, within the Slave States. Truly did President 



THE NATIONAL GOVEENMENT. 55 

Lincoln say, that "the central idea of Secession is the 
essence of anarchy." 

This whole subject has been so ably discussed by my 
distinguished countryman, the brilliant historian, John 
Lathrop Motley, in his articles in the London Times for 
May 23rd and 24th, that I can but refer all readers 
to his exhaustive argument. From the many authorities 
which he brings in support of the views there presented, 
I select but one, which, as recording the judgment of 
the United States Supreme Court, may well be deemed 
conclusive. The passage is as follows : — " It has been said, 
that the States were sovereign, were completely independent, 
and were connected with each other by a league. This is 
true, But when these allied sovereignties converted a 
league into aGOVEENMENT; when they converted their Congress 
of Ambassadors into a Legislatuee, empoweeed to enact 
laws, the whole character in which the States appear, under- 
went a change." 

That the framers of the Constitution, distinctly under- 
stood, and solemnly agreed, that in adopting the Con- 
stitution they were planting the foundations of a National 
Unity, upon the broad consent of the collective people, 
as clear, is words can make any meaning clear, from 
the Preamble to the Constitution. It reads as follows : — 
"We, the People of the United States, in order to form a 
more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic 
tranquillity, provide for a common defence, promote the 
general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves 
and our posterity, do oedain and establish this Constitu- 
tion for the United States of America." 

Commenting upon this passage, Judge Story uses these 
emphatic words : — " There is no where found, upon the face 
of the Constitution, any clause intimating it to be a compact, 
or in any ways providing for its interpretation, as such. On 
the contrary, the preamble emphatically declares that it is a 
solemn ordinance of government. The language is, "we, the 
people of the United States, do ordain and establish this 
constitution for the United States of America." The people 
do ordain and establish ,—■ not contract and stipulate with 



56 RESERVED RIGHTS. 

each other; the people of the United States,— not the 
distinct people of a particular state, with the people of the 
other states ; — the people ordain and establish a Constitution, 
— not a Confederation. The distinction between a Constitu- 
tion and a Confederation is well known and understood. The 
latter, or at least a pure Confederation, is a mere treaty or 
league between independent States, and binds no longer than 
during the good pleasure of each. It rests for ever an article 
of compact, where each is or may be the supreme judge of 
its own rights or duties. The former is a permanent form 
of government ; the powers once given are irrevocable, and 
cannot be resumed or withdrawn at pleasure." 

Mr. Jefferson Davis' sophistry, in regard to the " reser- 
vation, by the States, of all their sovereign rights and 
powers, not expressly delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution," is completely dispelled by the closing words of 
the Tenth Article of the "Amendments to the Constitution," 
— to which he himself refers. These words are : — " Reserved 
to the States respectively, or to the People." Surely the 
larger term includes the lesser ; and therefore, by this very 
phrase the plain meaning of the Preamble to the Constitution 
is confirmed, and the collective People of the whole United 
States are declared to be ultimate arbiter and supreme 
sovereign. 

Again it is manifest, that only those rights could be 
reserved, which were not delegated to the United States by 
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the several States. 
Now amongst these delegated powers, and therefore not 
reserved for the individual States, stands prominently that 
of Central and Supreme Legislation. For thus reads the 
second section, of Article Sixth, of the Constitution : — "This 
Constitution and the Laws of the United States, which shall 
be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or 
which shall be made, under the authority of the United 
States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the 
judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the 
Constitution or Laics of any State to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing." And next, among the prohibitions, occur in Section 
Tenth, of the First Article, these very distinct limitations 



THE POWERS OF CONGRESS. 57 

of State rights : — " No State shall enter into any treaty 
of alliance, or confederation, grant letters of marque and 
reprisal, coin money, emit bills of credit, make anything 
but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts, pass 
any bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, or laws impairing 
the obligation of contracts." And further, " No State shall, 
without the consent of Congress, keep troops or ships of war 
in time of peace, or enter into any agreement or compact with 
another State, or with a foreign power, etc." ... In view of 
these delegated rights, and of these prohibitons, where stands 
Secession, according to the Constitutional Law of America ? 

That it was the deliberate purpose of the People of the 
United States to organize themselves into a Nation, and not 
to frame a Confederacy of separate Nations, is yet further 
apparent from the enumeration of the Powers entrusted to 
Congress, as the Central Legislature. They are briefly, the 
establishment of a uniform rule of naturalization ; — the 
collection of taxes, duties, and imposts; the regulations 
of commerce ; the coining of money ; the declaration of 
war ; the providing and maintenance of an army and navy, 
and their government and regulation when in service ; the 
calling forth of the militia to execute the laws of the Union, 
to suppress insurrection, and to repel invasion ; the establish- 
ment of a postal system ; and the constituting tribunals, 
inferior to the Supreme Court. Surely these are Sovereign 
and Supreme powers of a Nation ; and this Nation is 
the United States of America. 

But it is said, that Virginia, " mother of Presidents," as 
she has been called, — parent as she proudly was of some of 
greatest statesmen whom the Western world has ever seen 
— Washington, Patrick Henry, Jefferson, Madison, and 
Marshall, — in the convention of her people, called to ratify 
the Constitution, recorded her dread and dislike of consolida- 
tion and centralization, in terms which sanction Secession : — 
" The powers granted under the Constitution, being derived 
from the People of the United States, may be resumed, whenever 
the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression, 
and every power not granted thereby, remains with them 
and at their will," Is not Secession the simple resumption 



58 RESERVED RIGHTS. 

of these powers ? Let Virginia herself answer the question. 
In 1814, at the time of the celebrated Hartford convention, 
in Connecticut, New England, the Richmond Observer of 
November 1st, declared the public opinion of Virginia, in 
the following explicit terms : — " No man, no association of 
men, no State, nor set of States has a right to withdraw itself 
from this Union, of its own accord. The same power, which 
knit us together, can only unknit ; the same formality, which 
forged the links of the Union, is necessary to dissolve it. 
The Majority of States which form the Union must con- 
sent to the withdrawal of any one branch of it. Until that 
consent has been obtained, to dissolve the Union, to obstruct 
the efficiency of its constitutional laws is treason, — treason 
to all intents and purposes. Any other doctrine, — such as 
that any one State may withdraw itself from the Union, is an 
abominable heresy. . . . This illustrious Union, which has 
been cemented by the blood of our forefathers, tbe pride of 
America, and the wonder of the world, must not be tamely 
sacrificed to the heated brains or the aspiring hearts of a few 
malcontents. The Union must be saved, when any one 
shall dare to assail it." 

Why is not this doctrine as sound in 1861, as it was in 
1814 ? To remove the last remnant of doubt in regard to 
the opinions of the framers of the Constitution, at once at the 
North and at the South, — alike in New York and Virginia, 
let the following extract from a correspondence between 
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison — by universal 
acknowledgement the best expounders of the Constitution at 
that period — be carefully studied. In 1788 New York had 
doubts whether she should adopt the Constitution, without 
trial ; and Hamilton, as her organ of expression, consulted 
upon the point with Madison as follows : — " You will under- 
stand that the only qualification will be the reservation of a 
right to recede in case our amendments have not been decided 
upon, in one of the modes, pointed out in the Constitution, 
within a certain number of years, perhaps five or seven. If 
this can in the first instance be admitted as a ratification, I 
do not fear any further consequences." Madison replied in 
these emphatic and conclusive terms : — " My opinion is, that 



madison's view of secession. 59 

a reservation of a right to withdraw, if amendments be not 
decided on under the form of the Constitution, within a 
certain time, is a conditional ratification; that it does not 
make New York a member of the new Union; and 
consequently that she should not be received on that plan. . . . 
A Constitution requires an adoption in toto and forever. It 
has been so adopted by the other States. An adoption for a 
limited time, would be as defective, as an adoption of some 
of the Articles only. In short, any condition whatever must 
vitiate the ratification. . . . The idea of reserving the right 
to withdraw was started at Kichmond, and considered as 
conditional ratification, which was itself abandoned as worse 
than rejection." New York, thereupon, adopted the Constitu- 
tion, as the other States had adopted it, in toto and for ever. 
Surely this settles all controversy in regard to the opinion of 
those who framed the Constitution, and as to the purpose 
of the People, who adopted it. 

But may not time and experience of the working of the 
United States Government, under the Constitution, have 
produced some change in the opinion of the illustrious 
Madison ? Let the following answer of this veteran states- 
man, — undeniably, in his time, the pre-eminently authorita- 
tive expounder of the Constitution — ; at the very verge of his 
career, give reply. Writing to Mr. Alexander Hives in 
1833, during the Nullification disturbance, he said : — " I do 
not consider the proceedings of "Virginia, in '98-'99, as 
countenancing the doctrine, that a State may at will secede 
from its Constitutional compact with the other States. . . . 
It surely does not follow from the fact of the States, — or 
rather the People embodied in them, having, as parties to the 
Constitutional compact, no tribunal above them, — that in 
controverted meanings of the compact, the minority of parties 
can rightfully decide against the majority ; still less that 
a single party can decide against the rest ; and as little, that 
it can at will, withdraw itself altogether from its compact 
with the rest. ... An inference from the doctrine, that a 
single State has a right to secede at will from the rest, is 
that the rest would have an equal right to secede from it, 
in other words, to turn it against its will out of its Union 



60 Washington's love of the union. 

with them. Such a doctrine would not, until of late, have 
been palatable anywhere. ... An individual, expatriating 
himself, assuredly could not withdraw his portion of territory 
from the common domain. In the case of a State seceding 
from the Union, its domain would be dismembered ; and 
other consequenses would be brought on, not less obvious 
than pernicious." So much for Secession, according to 
Constitutional Laws. 

And now from the lurid 'light with which this disastrous 
eclipse of Secession has overspread the Republic of the 
United States, let us escape for refreshment into that 
serene, unclouded sunshine, wherewith the Nation was 
gladdened in the morning hour of Washington's Presidency. 
Thus in his farewell words of counsel, bequeathing his 
best blessing on the People for whom he had lived with such 
heroic fidelity and majestic wisdom, spoke the m Father of his 
Country:" — " The unity of government, which constitutes you 
one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it 
is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence ; the 
support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad ; of 
your safety; of your prosperity ; of that very liberty which 
you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from 
different causes and from different quarters, much pains will 
be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds, 
the conviction of this truth ; as this is the point in your 
political fortress, against which the batteries of internal and 
external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though 
often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite 
moment, that you should properly estimate the immense 
value of your National Union to your collective and individual 
happiness ; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual and 
immovable attachment to it ; accustoming yourselves to 
think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political 
safety and prosperity ; watching for its perservation with 
jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest 
even a suspicion that it can, in any event, be abandoned ; 
and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every 
attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, 
or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the 



THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT. 61 

various parts. For this you have every inducement of 
sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a 
common country, that country has a right to concentrate 
your affections." 

Thus religious was the loyal love, with which Washing- 
ton regarded his Nation. What wonder, that, on the last 
birthday of this magnanimous man, — when at sunrise, sur- 
rounded by exultant multitudes, the Republican President 
elect, with his own arm raised to the top of the flagstaff, 
the National Banner, and let its silken folds float free on 
the morning air, he should have pledged himself that, God 
blessing his honest efforts, not a single star on its blue 
ground should be struck out, however eclipsed, during his 
administration. And where is the man, of self-respect, 
honour, patriotism, and religious principle, who would 
have faltered on the path, so plainly opened, from any fear 
of personal peril or dread of civil strife ? Nominated by a. 
great National party as their candidate, according to estab- 
lished conventional usage, — elected to the highest office in 
the gift of the People, by the unbiassed votes of large ma- 
jorities, — pledged by repeated public professions to ensure 
the triumph of essential constitutional principles, — what 
contemptible cowardice would it have been to hesitate a 
moment in his course. By every motive that should prompt 
a generous soul, was he bound to proceed to the Capital at 
any cost, — there to assume, under the sanction of solemn 
oaths, the office to which the Nation had summoned him. 
And when, in response to the aged Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court, Abraham Lincoln took this pledge : — 
"I do solemnly swear, that I will faithfully execute the 
office of President of the United States, and will, to the 
best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend, the Con- 
stitution of the United States," can there be a doubt that 
he felt himself religiously consecrated to the execution of 
every law entrusted to his keeping ? Could he have looked 
his wife and children in the face without a blush of shame ; 
could he have borne the reproachful gaze of earnest patriots 
and of a confiding People ; could he have dared to appeal 
to the impartial verdict of an on-looking world and of 



62 OATH OF FIDELITY. 

posterity; could he have looked forward to re-union with the 
sages and heroes of the Kepublic in the world of light, without 
horror ; could he have endured to be alone with his own 
conscience, before his God, if he had for an instant dreamed 
of yielding to the insolent threats and the imperious de- 
mands of treason ? 

In this trying hour the plain back- woods-man proved that a 
simple heart and a single" mind are the secret of highest 
statesmanship. Fortunately for himself, and for his nation, 
he never swerved from his clear official duty. The w r ell 
weighed words of his Inaugural Address expressed the 
fixed purpose, which in his hours of privacy, had presented 
itself to his conscience : — " I shall take care, as the Consti- 
tution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the Laws of 
the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the States." 
Thenceforth he had but to redeem this pledge. . Most 
nobly have his deeds interpreted his words. Literally and 
exactly, has he proceeded to fulfil his promises. 

It is a remarkable incident in the life of Mr. Lincoln, 
that many years ago, during a stormy political campaign in 
his own State, he used these words, almost prophetic in 
application to his position, when he first reached Washing- 
ton : — " The probability that we may fall in the struggle, 
ought not to deter us from the support of a cause, which we 
deem to be just ; it shall not deter me. If ever I feel the 
soul within me expand to dimensions, not wholly unworthy 
of its Almighty Author, it is when I contemplate the cause 
of my country deserted, and I standing up alone, and hurl- 
ing defiance at her oppressors. Here, without contemplating 
consequences, before high Heaven, and in the face of the 
world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of 
the land of my life, my liberty, and my love. And who, that 
thinks with me, will not fearlessly adopt the oath that I 
take. Let none falter who thinks he is right, and that we 
may succeed. But, if after all we shall fall ; be it so. We 
shall have the proud consolation of saying to our conscience, 
and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that 
the course approved by our judgment, and adored by our 
hearts in disaster, or in death, we never faltered in defend- 



* POLITICAL CORRUPTION. 63 

ing." How admirably wise, and brave, too, is the following 
strong and sturdy speech, delivered in New York, during 
his progress to the Capital : — " Let us stand by our duty, 
fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of 
those sophistical contrivances, wherewith we are so indus- 
triously plied and belaboured — contrivances such as groping 
for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, 
vain as the search for a man, who shall be neither a living 
man nor a dead man, — such as a policy of * don't care' on a 
question, about which all true men do care, — such as Union 
appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, 
reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but 
the righteous to repentance, — such as invocations to Wash- 
ington, imploring men to unsay what Washington said, and 
undo what Washington did. Neither let us be slandered 
from our duty by false accusations against us, nor fright- 
ened from it by menaces of destruction to the government, 
nor of dungeon to ourselves. Let us have faith that 
eight makes might, and in that faith let us, to the end, dare 

TO DO OUR DUTY, AS WE UNDERSTAND IT." And nOW, what 

was the duty of the Eepublican President and of the 
Eepublican Administration, as he and his Cabinet under- 
stood it? 

First of all, the indispensible work was to be performed 
of purifying the National Government through all branches, 
from the poison of political corruption with which it, 
was saturated. No easy work was it, to detect, and 
to discard, the host of lurking traitors, who, under 
apparent forms of legal authority, and using the plausible 
disguise of administrative action, were in high places and 
low, alike in civil, naval and military stations, stealthily 
undermining the Government, which, by every obligation of 
honour, they were bound to uphold. It now appears that even 
five years ago, President Buchanan was made aware of the 
Slaveholders Conspiracy. Yet by some means he was fright- 
ened or cajoled into surrounding himself in his Cabinet, with 
the ringleaders and abettors of Disunion. With incredible 
dereliction of duty, with absolute fatuity— to use no sterner 
words of condemnation — he permitted the minor offices of 



64 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 

administration of all kinds, to be garrisoned with the ene- 
mies of the Republic. During the year of 1860, the very 
head-quarters of " Secession" was the National Capital. The 
Administration organ was its advocate. Fraudulent contrac- 
tors were encouraged to rob and impoverish the Treasury, 
the Home Department, and the War Office, with the distinct 
aim of making the Nation a bankrupt, and producing a finan- 
cial panic* By every possible device and intrigue, the 
whole organization of Government was demoralized, in expec- 
tation of a swift coming crisis, when a political convulsion 
should bury in ruins all traces of guilt. And although dur- 
ing the last few months of Mr. Buchanan's scandalous 
official term, the energetic efforts of Messrs. Holt, Dix and 
others had introduced sweeping reforms, yet even on the 
4th of March, when Mr. Lincoln assumed the Presidency, 
he felt, and all felt, that he was actually in a hostile 
camp. The City of Washington was so crowded and sur- 
rounded by the spies and tools of the Montgomery Conspir- 
ators, — that as is well known, the cool and brave old veteran, 
Scott, stood by his cannoneers, the whole day through. For 
weeks, and indeed until the outbreak of hostilities — it was 
almost impossible to know whom to trust. The very founda- 
tions of the Government seemed undermined, and at any 
moment, through means unsuspected, might have come a disas- 
trous explosion. No on-looker, from Europe probably, can 
conceive of the difficulties, which beset the Republican 
Government at the very outset of its career. Deliberately, 
cautiously, diligently, with no unnecesary confusion, yet with 
uncompromising firmness, was the work of internal adminis- 
trative reform effected, until the President and Cabinet felt 
securely centered. 

And next, a yet more delicate and difficult task was to be 
accomplished, — the harmonious combination of a conciliatory 
course towards the Border States, with decisive action 
towards the Gulf States. How, without concession of prin- 
ciple could the Republican Government prevent the neutral 
States from plunging into the dark abyss of Disunion, 

*The spoliations of John B. Floyd, alone, amounted to many mill- 
ions of dollars, variously estimated from six to fifteen. _ , . 



FORBEARANCE AND FIRMNESS. 65 

towards which the rebel States were ruthlessly dragging them? 
The President was legally bound, by his constitutional obli- 
gations, "to re-occupy the property and places belonging to 
the Nation," and "to collect duties and imposts," and " to 
execute all laws passed by the National Congress." Yet 
Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, would not hear the word 
" coercion. " How, without invasion of the revolted 
States, or without bloodshed, could the Forts and Arsenals 
be re-possessed? To parley with the so-called " Com- 
missioners," was to yield the whole ground to " Secession ;" 
not to parley was to widen the breach. With what for- 
bearance, good faith and discretion, with what an unwearied 
desire and effort for a pacific solution of the controversy, 
yet with what indomitable steadiness, the Kepublican 
Administration for weeks endured the insolence of rebels, 
the taunts of impatient friends, the irritating misappre- 
hensions and contemptuous criticism of foreign on-lookers, 
will be told hereafter by impartial history. In a parentally 
considerate spirit, ready to forgive and forget to the utter- 
most, — calm to await the subsidence of popular passions, — 
anxious to avail itself of the mediatorial aid of Neutral 
States, —the Washington Government was willing to appear 
undecided, vacillating, pusillanimous, if without absolute 
surrender of justice and honour, someway could be opened, for 
reconciliation with the Seceding States. No threat of penalty 
was offered, the word subjugation was never whispered, 
no reprisals were made. On the other hand, the constant 
purpose was calmly reasserted, that the National Government 
felt absolutely bound to reclaim the National property, and 
execute the National will. So, in a hollow truce, a month 
and more dragged on. After ages can never justly bring the 
charge against the first Republican Administration, that 
it was rash, headstrong, haughty, exacting, or tyranni- 
cal towards the traitors, who so recklessly spurned 
the Nation's power. Calm in conscious integrity, con- 
fident in their resources, trusting the spirit of right in 
the hearts of the People, confiding in an overruling Provi- 
dence, President Lincoln and his Cabinet bided their time. 
The world knows the tragic sequel, — so dark for the 



66 THE FATAL CANNON SHOT. 

moment with a Nation's sorrow, yet glorified by the hope of 
a Nation's new birth. Wearied out and angered by the dila- 
tory inaction of Virginia, and with the sole end of constrain- 
ing that once influential State, together with Maryland, to 
cast in her lot with the Southern Confederacy,* — fearing 
also a re-action of Union sentiment, amidst the better 
classes of the Border States, and even of the Seceding States, 
the desperate Faction at .Montgomery, resolved, in an evil 
hour, to inaugurate " Civil War." Never was aggression 
more unprovoked and wanton. The position of tbe brave 
Anderson, and of his small, famishing, ill-supplied garrison, 
was perfectly well known. There was not the faintest fear 
of an attack from him. With heavily armed batteries guard- 
ing every approach, the u Confederates'' felt confident in 
their power to repel any relieving squadron. But a "demon- 
stration" was called for, — by policy : — for policy, " let blood 
be shed !" And so the fatal cannon-shot, aimed at the 
National Banner above Fort Sumter, boomed across the 
harbour of Charleston. 

At that knell of fratricidal conflict, what a marvellous 
transformation passed over the National Government, and 
the whole People of the North and West! Tbe hour for 
moderation was gone by. The life of the Nation was 
threatened ; that life should be preserved, — at any cost of 
treasure or of blood. The might of the Union must be put 
forth instantly, irresistibly, to curb and to crush this 
murderous Insurrection, which in the very mode of its 
attack upon the heroes of Fort Sumter, proved how fiendish, 
inexorable, and dead to all mercy and honour, its real nature 
was. The Act of 1795 fully empowered the President, in 
such a terrible emergency, as had burst upon the Nation, to 
summon to the aid of Government the whole Militia force of 
the Republic. For thus it reads : — "Whenever the Laws of 
the United States shall be opposed, or the execution thereof 
obstructed, in any State, by combinations too powerful to be 
suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, it 
shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call 

* It is well known that Mr. Pry or, of Virginia, was a chief instigator 
of the attack on Fort Sumter. 



a nation's up-eistns. 67 

forth the Militia of such State, or of any other State or States, 
as may be necessary to suppress such combination, and to 
cause the Laws to be duly executed." 

The President, in the name of the Republic, commanded 
Patriots to put down Traitors. And at his call, a Nation that 
had sunk to sleep, one night, pacific citizens, intent on works 
of useful industry, awoke, next morning, an armed host, 
eager to rush to the defence of the Capital. History holds 
no record of a national uprising, more admirable for spon- 
taneous loyalty, prompt vigor, geuerous self-sacrifice and 
brave resolve. The spectacle was as majestic in commanding 
dignity, as it was beautiful in the overflow of humane affection. 
The farmer left his plough in the furrow, the workman drop- 
ped his tools on the bench. Bankers and merchants opened 
their coffers and hastened, with full hands, to form committees 
of safety and relief. The lawyer rolled up his parchments, 
the scholar quitted his tranquil study, the minister came 
down from his pulpit. Young striplings from school and 
from college, veteran soldiers on the verge of life, old and 
young, of all classes, came thronging, in some form to offer 
their service and render their gift. Common relations of life 
caught the tinge of romance, in the glow of universal 
magnanimity. Aged parents bestowed parting benedictions 
on sons and grandsons, the prop of declining years. The 
bride, from the marriage altar, dismissed with smiles of 
cheering her new wedded spouse. Widows offered in sacri- 
fice their only sons. Young friends, in heroic rivalry, petitioned 
to wear one anothers uniforms and to bear one anothers 
w r eapons. The healthy and stalwart sprang forward, as substi- 
tutes for the disabled or weak. All vied to be first at the 
post of peril, or to bear the heaviest burden. And touching 
as were these private proofs of loyal sympathy, — the public 
manifestations of high-toned principle were equally animated 
by generous zeal. Banks, insurance offices, rail-road com- 
panies, charitable societies preferred freely, — looking for 
no recompense or return, — exhaustless contributions. In 
immense mass-meetings, life-long political foes shook hands, 
with the solemn pledge, that old watchwords forgotten, old 
grievances pardoned, and minor questions laid aside, they 



68 REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 

would recognize no party but the Nation, until the Republic 
was redeemed. Religious sects s'rL need their doctrinal 
controversies, in mutual consecration to the work of reviv- 
ing the national conscience, with love of Freedom, as God's 
Law of Life. While in Puritan New England, companies 
of women, rich and poor alike, even on the Sabbath day, 
passed from houses of worship to vestries and school-rooms, 
there to finish equipments for gallant townsmen, suddenly 
summoned to the camp. 'And yet other companies grouped 
themselves as nurses, to be ready, by hospital service, to 
mitigate the awful tragedies of v. 

Less than this could not have been done, without derelic- 
tion of duty; and prudent rega I for national power and 
prosperity swelled the tide of loyal enthusiasm. But all 
due allowances made, — the i'.i vt still remains, that the Peo- 
ple of the Free States have exhibited a mingled energy and 
calmness, a fiery courage and prudent forethought, a stern 
integrity crowned with delicate gen. a sturdy manli- 

ness blended with chivalrous honour and Christian confi- 
dence, — which have rarely, if ever, been surpassed, uuder 
ai?y form of society. 

It surely speaks volumes, also, in favour of the influence of 
Republican Institutions, — that, having borne through long 
years, with utmost forbearance and generous considerate- 
ness, insolent indignities, and barbarous outrages from the 
Slaveholders, — while venerable commissioners were rudely 
expelled, — peaceful travellers subjected to a system of 
espionage, spoliation, mock-justice,, imprisonment, expulsion 
or death, that would disgrace the vilest despotism, — gentle 
women dragged through the streets, publicly whipped and 
cast into dungeons; — while the protection guaranteed to 
citizens of all States equally, by National Law, was mocked 
at, the National right of free speech forbidden, the circulation 
of books and papers prohibited, and the sanctity of the 
National postal establishment violated; — while finally, the 
peace of the National Legislative Halls was invaded, and 
an honoured statesman was brutally struck down on the floor 
of the National Council chamber, — the People of the Free 
States should still cherish fraternal regard for the People 



REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 69 

of the South. These monstrous breaches of justice, court- 
esy and decency, were all equitably traced up to the demoral- 
izing debasements of the k< Patriarchal Institution." With 
ever deepening and soon to be resistless, detestation of 
the infernal system of ilaveholding, there is pity rather than 
wrath for the Slaveholder, and a magnanimous longing to 
redeem, by any Sacrifice, the " Sunny South," and its natur- 
ally warm-hearted, brave and cheerful people, from the crime 
and curse of Slavery. Prompt, now as ever, would the 
North and West be to fly to the rescue of the South against 
foreign invasion. And even at this moment, there would be 
the heartiest universal rejoicing, if the mad desperadoes, who 
head the " Secession" host, should regain sanity, and end 
hostilities by returning to their constitutional duties. Spite 
of all the atrocities, which have been perpetrated or threat- 
ened, universal amnesty would be proclaimed, except with 
regard to a few irredeemable mischief makers, whom none 
could ever trust again. Yes ! it is true, literally and 
without exaggeration, true, that the one inspiring impulse — 
which fires and nerves the whole JNational Arnry — from the 
commander in chief to every subaltern and private, is the 
calm resolve to maintain the Republic in its integrity, 
to uphold the Constitution and Laws of the Nation, 
and to defend against anarchy the '•' Star Spangled Banner/' 
as symbol of the Union — Many yet < >ne. 

What a proof to the civilized world, too, is now exhibited 
of the indestructible vitality and the all-pervading vigour, 
inherent in a Republican form of Government. European 
Critics, accustomed to their own administrative methods, 
have sneered at the weak Executive of the United States ! 
Yet did ever a Czar of Russia, or an Emperor of France, 
so promptly and efficiently summon, organize, equip, mar- 
shall, and set in the field for active operations, so large and 
powerful an army, — as the plain Illinois lawyer, now 
occupying for a time the " White House" at Washington, has 
done in one month's time, by a single order ? And this has 
been effected, be it remembered, under gravest disadvant- 
age, — when treachery had been permitted to sap and under- 
mine the verv strong-holds of National Power; nay, when 



70 STRENGTH OF A REPUBLIC. 

treachery had used the forms of executive action, through 
an inconceivably perjured Secretary of War, to spoil the 
Nation of its arms in aid of rebellion. Who can doubt, 
if President Lincoln had been in office at the time 
when this Conspiiacy first showed its hideous front, — or if 
the timely suggestions of the brave and sagacious Scott 
had been promptly acted on by the imbecile Buchanan, — 
that what has now grown to be a vast rebellion of " Con- 
federate States" would have ended, as a hot-headed emeute of 
South Carolina? 

But though taken suddenly, by surprise, and under con- 
ditions, that well might have paralyzed the oldest and best 
established dynasties, the Executive of the Republic has 
put forth an energy, that promises to be alike indomitable 
and inexhaustible. Preparations, for what might be a vast 
campaign, were organized in a day. Or rather the Nation be- 
came aware at a moment's call, that according to its ordinary 
forms of administration, it was already organized throughout 
every State, County, City, Township, from the President, 
Governors, Mayors, Selectmen, down to Committees of 
Citizens, into a countless army of Volunteers — ready, in- 
stantly to dispatch its advanced guard, to concentrate its 
battalions for marching orders, and to drill its reserve of 
recruits. Let outside observers speculate as they may on 
the " decline and fall" of the " Great Republic of the West!" 
The People of the United States, feel glowing and tingling 
through the whole body politic, from brain and heart, in 
every artery and nerve, a glad sense of healthy vigour, that 
makes transient trial light, in the foretaste of a glorious 
future. A great Nation, conscious of its strength, can 
calmly await the recognition of its peers. Let who will 
dream that " Republicanism is a failure ! ' The People of 
the United States, from full hearts, are thanking the Su- 
preme Over-ruler, that their Republic is proving itself 
to be a magnificent success. 

Thus at the close of this full, and I trust fair, review of 
the Constitutional aspects of " Secession," my unfaltering 
prediction is, that whatever may be the fate of the " Seceding 
States," the Republic of the Union will emerge from this 



THE REAL^FOES. Tl 

conflict, strong, symmetric, high-minded and hopeful, as it 
has never been since the days of Washington. 

2. And next, let us bring face to face, and contrast, the 
Two Parties in the controversy. In this so-called "Civil 
War," — which I have proved to be only a treacherous Con- 
spiracy, — who pre the foes ? They are not the People of the 
South, and the People of the North and West. For between 
them, spite of all appearances to the contrary, there is not, 
there never has been, any misunderstanding, which could 
not be cleared away by one single year's free intercourse 
and interchange of views. Commerce, marriage, kindred, 
college friendships, mutual hospitalities, common literature, 
one religion, — added to the wonderful inter-dependence of 
the three grand sections of the country, North, West, and 
South, from geographical ties, — ten thousand bonds of all 
kinds, knit the whole People of the United States 
into one, No ! The foes are strictly — the Slave Oli- 
garchy and the Constitutional Government of the He- 
public. What now is the relative position of these 
opponents ; and what will be the prohahle result of the 
Life or Death struggle between them ? 

And here the question presents itself, so often urged, as 
if it admitted of no answer by British writers : — " how can 
there be a reasonable hope of Ee-union, as the result of this 
fratricidal strife ?" Surely students of British history do not 
need to be reminded by an American of the " Wars of the 
Hoses," and of those of the " Commonwealth. 1 ' Yet York 
and Lancaster have long since intertwined and engrafted, 
the white rose with the red, by myriad marriage alliances ; 
and Cavaliers and Puritans sit side by side, without sword- 
drawing, on the same bench in the council chamber, and 
the church. But such " Civil Wars," it is said, are cen- 
turies out-of-date, and the greensward has long since over- 
grown the weapons of such strife. Very well, then ! Let us 
come lower down. How long since was it, that troops 
held the whole length of the Caledonian Canal,— that the 
" Eed-coats " stained with gore the snows of Glencoe ? Yet 
are not the Highlands the summer home of thousands of 
English tourists? And was it not a gallant regiment, of 



73 CTTIL WAR. 

Highlanders, with their "thin line,"' who formed the 
unbroken bulwark against Ilussian masses, on the dark 
day of Balaclava? A few Scotchmen do consent to visit 
London ; a few Scotchmen do turn an honest penny or two 
in Lancashire, — bloody differences all forgotten. " Is the 
reign of the great William, too antiquated, however, and is 
it convenient for even readers of Macaulay to forget, by 
what means Scotland was pacified ? Then, let us come to 
modern times, — within the memory of all of middle life. 
How long was it. since the shrewd and quick-witted Daniel 
O'Connell " thought on his legs," and whispered or thun- 
dered his " treason " on the floor of Parliament ; since in 
Courts, surrounded by soldiers, with bayonets set, were 
passed sentences of outlawry against traitors in Dublin ? 
And yet the high-minded Smith O'Brien would be wel- 
comed to-day, by nobles and gentry of England, and the 
eloquent Duffy takes foremost part in the " parliament " of 
that mighty new Nation, growing to such gigantic propor- 
tions, in the Antarctic seas ? But are the centuries of Irish 
"Civil War"' to be banished as a foreign "barbarism," 
no-wise concerning England and the English ? Then let 
us come to only thirty year's since, — when the ques- 
tion was asked at Club- Houses, and at street-corners, 
in the metropolis : — "will King William IV. come down 
to Parliament?" It has been rumoured, that the 
General-in-Chief of the proposed "Army of Reform" was 
treading English soil in entire good-fellowship with his 
neighbours, at the very hour when the "Iron Duke" 
had his eye on batteries of cannon in London. Is the 
" Reform-Bill " contest also, too remote ? Veiy well 
then, finally, are there not gentlemen in middle life, 
who remember to have stood side by side, with the 
present " Emperor of the French," armed with " Special 
Police " batons, sundry houses near AVestminster Bridge 
and elsewhere, being well stocked with " Regulars," on 
a certain day when Feargus OConnor, with his "Moral 
Force Chartists," came thronging to offer the " Monster 
Petition?-' Yet within these three years, who has not 
heard the famous " Five Points " calmly discussed in 
private parties, and large public meetings ? 



CIVIL WAS. 78 

If the People of Great Britain and Ireland have, by 
tacit consent, so wisely and good-naturedly, agreed to for- 
give and forget their " Civil Wars," why may not their 
kinsmen, with just the same blood beating in their hearts, 
— not quite " Red Indians " yet, — agree some day to bury 
the hatchet, send round the wampum, and smoke the calu- 
met of peace ? In plainest terms, I mean to affirm that the 
People of the United States are not a whit more savage, 
morose, revengeful, or " fratricidal," than their British 
brethren. Let justice, in this sad controversy, be once 
made manifest,, and it will be found with Americans, as with 
other nations, that " Mercy and Truth have met together, 
and Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other." 

But again, it is asked, and with most generous and fra- 
ternal spirit : — " How can there be a reasonable expectation 
that the Free States can subdue the Slave States,— even 
though they can bring against the One million' five hundred 
thousand soldiers of the South, more than Four millions of 
armed men from the North and West ; though they can 
command three-fcid to ten-fold more money, munitions of 
war, and naval vessels ; though they can blockade every 
harbour along the Southern Coast, from Chesapeake Bay 
to the mouth of the Rio Del-Norte ; and although, finally, 
they can coop up and confine the unfortunate Slaveholders, 
— amidst famine and want, — to fight out their desperate 
battle at once with the " poor whites " and the maddened 
Slaves ? Grant this to be done, still is it probable that the 
brave, high-spirited, haughty Southerners can be humbled 
into submission to a Government, which they will have 
learned, through suffering, utterly to detest ? 

"Once more granting, that the Government of the Union, 
and that the People of the Union, acting under its com- 
mand, have thus far been strictly right, in their construc- 
tion of Constitutional Law, — yet what good issue— for 
the Slaves— for the Poor Whites,— for the Masters,— for 
the Freemen of the North,— for the Republic itself, can be 
expected from such a terrific and exterminating contest, as 
seems about to open ?" 

These questions bring fairly up for consideration the rela- 



74 UNION PARTY IN THE SOUTH. 

tive position of the two Parties to this controversy. And in 
giving an answer, my endeavour shall be to present some 
specific considerations, which are too generally overlooked. 

To begin with, the general statement may be made, — 
which impartial on-lookers will be ready to approve, as just, 
that the real contest which will be decided, probably for 
generations to come, within the United States by this 
" Civil war," is, " whether an Exclusive Oligarchy or a 
Free People shall be regarded as Sovereign in the State." 

It has not been apparently considered, by European 
Statesmen, that in the Constitution of the United States, 
In Arlicle 4th, section 4th, this solemn Pledge is declared: 
— " The United States shall guarantee to every State in 
this Uniou, a Republican form of Government." This is 
surely one of the Constitutional obligations to which the 
President, his Administration, Congress, and the People of 
the Union are bound in honour as in justice to conform. 
The word guarantee is a very strong one. 

Now it should be distinctly understood, that one of the 
most serious difficulties for the National Goverment, in 
dealing with " Secession,"— as it has thus far presented 
itself, — is the all but unanimous conviction, on the part of 
the Free States, that the Seceding States have been whirled 
into the vortex of Disunion, almost without the knowledge, 
certainly without the free consent of the People of the States. 

This conviction rests in part upon the testimony of 
hundreds, perhaps thousands of refugees from the u Reign of 
Terror " in the South, — who, impoverished and homeless, 
are now living as exiles in the Northern States, — and who 
all declare in most earnest terms, thsit a large and powerful, 
though for the present disorganized and broken Union Party, 
exists throughout the South, only awaiting fit opportunity 
for action. And this is true of every Seceding State without 
exception. This testimony is periectly confirmed, by state- 
ments, which have appeared in Southern papers, even amidst 
the fierce frenzy that has overswept the Slave States like 
a prairie fire. 

For example, the Union Banner published at xAthens, 
Alabama, commenting on a Pamphlet, entitled, ' Ordinances 



EIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE. 75 

adopted by people of the State of Alabama, in Convention, at 
Montgomery," expresses itself emphatically thus : — "Ordinan- 
ces by the people, eh ! so the fifty-four out of the one hun- 
dred delegates of the Alabama Convention, who were against 
referring Recession to the Sovereigns, are the " people of 
Alabama !" 

Again, another Alabama paper, " The Tuscumbia North 
Alabamian" thus reveals some secrets from the prison house 
of the Slave Oligarchy : — " There has been a manifest dis- 
trust or disregard of the popular sentiment by the leading 
politicians of Alabama, in witholding the Secession ordi- 
nance from a vote of the people ; and the tendency still is, 
if we are not mistaken in the movements of the political 
chess-board of those leaders, to remove still further all 
power from the immediate action of the people. What 
voice had they in electing members to the Congress now in 
session at Montgomery ? And what voice, kind reader, do 
you think you will have in ratifying the constitution which 
that Congress has adopted ? By what authority have a 
President and Vice President been elected to the Confede- 
rate States of America? When you elected your members 
to a State Convention, did you authorize a bare majority of 
that body to elect members to a Congress, to form a new 
Government, — and authorize still further, the members of 
that Congress to elect a President, a Vice President and 
other officials ? These are questions for your serious con- 
sideration." 

And a Natchez, Tennessee, paper, in contradicting the 
statement of a contemporary, that " the city was in a blaze 
of excitement and rejoicing," over the election of President 
Davis, says : — " There was no sound of rejoicing here at 
Natchez, either on account of the formation of such a 
Southern Confederacy, or the appointment of such rulers. 
The word sprung from one to another, ' Are we to have no 
showing? Are the people to have no choice? Can a con- 
vention alter Constitutions, impose taxes, appoint Consti- 
tution makers, inaugurate Presidents? Are they Oligarchs, 
and are we nothing? ' And each citizen had to confess that 
there was no reply to these questions. We live under an 



76 UNION PARTY IN THE SOUTH. 

Oligarchy, that has not yet dared to trust the people with a 
vote as to its consent, liight as the South is upon the 
great question at issue, its position has been compromised 
by the events of the last two months The " consent of the 
governed " is an essential element of government. The 
people of the South-west might have voted for all that has 
been done, but their consent has not yet been either asked or 
obtained." 

By these declarations from Southern Papers, it is made clear, 
that in the opinion of no unimportant portion of the People 
of the South, it is bitterly felt that Secession has been a trick 
of Political Gamblers, hurried and driven along, without or 
against the Will of the People, by the traitors who now rule 
the Gulf States, with a rod of iron. 

And Benson J. Lossing, — the historian, on his return 
from a late visit to the South Western Slave States, thus gave 
his testimony as to the methods, whereby these unacruplous 
usurpers have paralyzed the action of the Union people of 
the South : --"My conclusions are that, underlying the seces- 
sion sentiment, that covers the whole surface of society at the 
South, there is a deep and abiding love of the old Union ; 
silently praying for deliverance from a despotism which has 
few parallels in the history of the world. It needs only to 
be informed and assured, to become fearfully energetic. 
Thoroughly unfetter its limbs by the strong arm of Federal 
power, it will become speedily omnipotent in crushing the 
eggs of selfish rebellion, out of which are hatched the foul 
serpents of disunion. Let the Goverment give that assurance 
by quick, powerful, and effective action, and convey the truth 
to a deceived people, at the mouth of the cannon, if necessary, 
and all will be well soon. Yet the government has a foe 
to meet, not to be despised. The chief rebels are desperate 
and determined men, endowed with superior talents and 
furnished with many resources. It is now with them, a ques- 
tion of life or death, honour or dishonour, glory or infamy. 
Those who are involved in this treason, by taking up arms 
for them, are in the same desperate condition. And the 
South is full of brave and self-sacrificing n en. In all 
emergences, when the flag of our common country called for 



UNION PARTY IN THE SOUTH. 77 

defenders, they have shown an alacrity and courage in 
response not to be surpassed In a good cause they make 
puissant cohorts. Let the government and the Northern 
States, then, be prepared for a desperate conflict. ... I 
have said that my intercourse was with aged men, and 
afforded me a good opportunity to learn the true state of 
feeling in the South, and particularly in New Orleans, 
whose population is cosmopolitan and whose commercial 
life depends upon the perpetuity of the Union. I feel that 
I am fully justified in stating that the disunion sentiment, 
seen on the surface, has no considerable depth; that the 
people, by the reckless boldness, unscrupulous falsehoods 
and violent menaces of demagogues, using the press, with 
its vast power, for their base purposes, are in the hands of 
the politicians, and at present poweiless. A gentleman of 
wealth and high social position, who has lived in New 
Orleans fifty years, assured me on the day after the Presi- 
dent's proclamation was received, that if the loyal states 
would respond to it, patriotically, by giving the government 
a strong arm and full purse, v herewith to establish the 
federal authority everywhere within the borders of the 
Republic, there would go up from Southern lips such a shout 
for ' The Union and the Constitution ' as would silence 
every traitor instantly and for ever. ' New Orleans,' he said 
indignantly, ' is loyal to the core. Impudence and fear of 
brute force have cheated us of our liberties ; but let the 
people once see the accursed triple-striped flag of the rebels 
hau'ed clown from the Mint and Custom-house, and the 
Union banner placed there, by a hand strong enough to 
maintain it, and the people of the outraged city will hang 
every traitor found within its limits.' This feeling and 
assurance were confirmed by others. The heart of the 
South i- right, but the head is crazed at present by the 
grossest deceptions, the most subtle sophistries that bear 
the semblance of truth, and by a general ignorance of the 
kindly feelings, always held and still entertained by the 
people of the North towards those of the South. The 
newspapers in the interest of the traitors have, for months, 



78 UNION PARTY IN THE SOUTH. 

pursued an apparently concerted syste;u of misrepresenta- 
tion and the suppression of truth." 

The view, here expressed by this intelligent and just 
observer is supported by such a mass of testimony, — that it 
may be fairly doubted, whether, in spite of apparent action 
in Legislatures, or Conventions, one single State, with the 
probable exception of South Carolina, has seceded, by the 
free, and unbiassed will of its People. 

But giving up the Gulf States as hopelessly revolution- 
ized, — at least for the present, — certainly, in no one of the 
Border States does it seem even credible, that the People 
have deliberately decided upon Disunion. A few illustra- 
tions of this important fact, it may be well to present. And 
first of North Carolina, which, under the generalship of 
Governor Ellis, has apparently wheeled into line with the 
Secession host. On the 28th of December, in Randolph 
county, about the centre of the State, at a large meeting, 
irrespective of party, aud estimated to embrace the number 
of 800 to 1,000 voters, — the following resolve was passed: — 
"That, in the opinion of this meeting, it would be unwise and 
suicidal to the best interests of North Carolina to secede 
from the Union of the United States, for any cause now 
existing ; and it is greatly to be desired that no cause will 
ever exist to justify so great a calamity." Again, at a great 
Union demonstration, held in Robeson county, on the borders 
of South Carolina, on January 1st, 1861, thirty-three guns 
were fired for the Thirty-three States, and it was resolved : — 
" That Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney belong to the 
United States and not to South Carolina, and no action of a 
mob nor ejection of a flag can divest the title to the same." 

Next in regard to Tennessee, which is now declared to be 
a Seceder, the People, — when recently required by their 
Governor and Legislature, to vote for or against a Conven- 
tion, to dissolve their relations with the Union, — decided by 
a large majority, to have no convention, and to remain in 
the Union. And the high toned action of Senator Johnson 
and Representative Etheridge, during the whole of the last 
session of Congress, and ever since their return to their 
State, even up to the present moment, in denouncing the 



UNION PAETT IN THE SOUTH. 79 

madness of Secession, and proclaiming the most loyal love 
to the Union, gives sure indication of the true state of 
feeling, amongst their constituents. Indeed, as is well 
known, East Tennessee is in exactly the same position with 
Western Virginia. And yet by the arbitrary action of the 
Governor and the Legislature of Tennessee, who have laid 
lawless hands on rail-road bonds, and armed troops with the 
spoil, the will of the People of that State has been com- 
pletely trampled underfoot. By means of "Commissioners," 
these tyrants have formed a temporary Convention and 
military league between Tennessee and the " Confederacy," 
whereby M the military forces, and military operations, offen- 
sive and defensive, of the State, are given up to the entire 
control and direction" of Mr. Jefferson Davis. 

It is well known, how by a precisely similar course of 
intrigue and tyranny, Virginia has been made to lead the 
van, and to become the battle ground of the Secessionists' 
campaign against the United States Government, a full 
month, at least, before the People had even the opportunity to 
decide whether they would remain in the Union or not. 
What a farce is a popular vote taken amidst threatenings, 
bayonets, and cannon. Was tyranny ever more monstrous ? 

In repard to Kentucky, it is also clear, that the Governor 
of the State has done his very best to drive the Pecple into 
Disunion, or rt least to paralyze all action, in favour of the 
Union,— in glaiing violation of the well-known wishes of 
the People, as declared in large and earnest assemblies. 

And nothing, but the most prompt and energetic action 
of the National Government, has saved Missouri, from 
being swept away, into the gulf of Disunion, by the caprici- 
ous and lawless conduct of their Government, notwithstan- 
ding the undoubted predominance of the Union party, as 
manifesting itself through Mr. Bates, Mr. Blair, and their 
compeers. 

And finally, the disgraceful action of the Baltimore mob, 
and of its cruel instigators, clearly proves how a small and 
maddened, but armed and wealthy faction, may domineer 
over even a large majority of orderly, well-disposed, loyal, 



80 FEAR OF CONVENTIONS. 

citizens. Yet Maryland has been promptly and effectually 
saved for the Union. 

Now, how has this monstrous fraud and wrong of 
Secession, this truly Bourbon like trick been perpetrated? 
A few words, which passed between Mr. Stephens and Mr. 
Toombs, the most unscrupulous of the tyrants, at a meeting, 
held in Georgia, in November last, gives us the clue to the 
mystery. Mr. Stephen s^said —"an honourable and distin- 
guished gentleman, (Mr. ToDmbs,) the other night, advised 
you not to wait to hear from the cross roads and groceries, 
(the places for political meetings in the South) But 
I say to you, that you have no power so to act. For 
the People in this country are the Sovereigns. Sovereignty 
is not in the Legislature ! Your Legislatures are the 
servants of the People, and not their masters. Our 
Constitution came from the People, they made it and they 
alone can rightfully unmake it." — Ma. Toombs : — " 1 am 
afraid of conventions." Mr. Stephens : — '* I am not afraid 
of any Convention legally chosen by the People. But I would 
not let the questions which come before the People, be put to 
them in the language of my honourable friend, who addres- 
sed you last night, — Mr. Toombs, " WiU you submit to 
Abolition rule or resist ? Mr. Toombs : " I do not wish the 
people to be cheated." Mr. Stephens : "I think the proposi- 
tion of my honourable friend, had a considerable smack of 
unfairness not to say cheat! ! ! He wished to have no 
Convention, but for the Legislature to submit this vote to the 
People : " Submission to Abolition rule or resistance." Now, 
wdio in Georgia is going to submit to abolition rule ?" Mr. 
Toombs: "The Convention will!" 

Now in this conversation it may be safely taken for 
granted, that Mr. Toombs represents exactly the principle 
and policy of the Secessionists For at that period, Mr. 
Stephens was still in favour of the Union! The Secession- 
ists therefore were opposed to popular conventions ; opposed 
to recognition of the will of the People; and at heart they 
were deniers of the Sovereignty of the People. In fact, 
there is no doubt, that the ringleaders of Disunion have 
long meditated the over-turn of Republican institutions, and 



OLIGARCHY AND DICTATORSHIP. 81 

the substitution of the rule of a Slave Oligarchy, crowned 
by a military Dictatorship. 

Thit this has been a leading part of their Plot for years, 
has been perfectly well. known to Statesmen of the Republic. 
Mr. Calhoun began the work of " re-action " in the Senate, 
by pouring out vials of wrath upon " the Declaration of 
Independence." Senator Hammond, of South Carolina, 
followed his distinguished predecessor in the backward track 
towards despotism, by declaring with inconceivable inso- 
lence that the proper position for the Working Class, alike 
white and black, is servile depeudance ; — and sneeringly he 
called the constituency of Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, 
the " mud sills of Society.'' Mr. Spratt in the remarks 
already quoted, on the " war between Democracy and 
Slavery," utters the same stale sophisms, current among 
tyrants from the days of Nimrod, Finally, the " Committee 
on Foreign Affairs" of the " Confederate States," have just 
issued a laboured document to prove, how dangerous and 
delusive is the whole system of popular government. A 
precious confession, truly, of the latent meaning of 
" Secession !" 

Does this State Paper cast any light upon the smooth 
words so freely lavished upon the •' Correspondent of the 
Times,'" as to the longing of the South for a " British. 
Prince " to rule over them ? Let the rude brutalities of 
Richmond be an index of the genuine temper of a Southern 
mob, as lead by Southern demagogues. Was not that head 
quarters of Secession the only spot in the United States, 
where the Heir to the British Throne, and eldest son of 
Queen Victoria, was received with any other feeling than 
heartiest love? No! when the " Kepublic of Confed- 
erate States " is ready to emerge from its lowly original into 
the " Glorious Empire," that Mr. Barnwell Rhett is so elo- 
quent over, Emperor Davis and no other, will ascend the 
-seat of power ! Are not his organs of public opinion 
already claiming that the crisis demands the " Saladin of the 
South," as Dictator? Let sagacious British Statesmen 
put the " desire for an English Prince," side by side, with 

F 



82 TUB SLAVE OLIGARCHY. 

the "Free-Trade bribe." The Secessionists are merely 
making a high bid for recognition ! 

Thus, from the leaders of Secession comes the exact 
confirmation of my statement, that the two parties in this 
controversy are not the People of the South and the People 
of the North and West, but the " Slave < oligarchy " and the 
" Republican Government.'' Undoubtedly, one of the most 
fatal influences of the Slave System in the United States, 
has been the elevation to power of one of the most exclusive, 
imperious, and arbitrary Cliques, which the earth has ever 
seen. They are not an Aristocracy, — an Order of Nobles ; — 
but an Oligarchy, of the most debased type. Well said that 
deeply read and much experienced Statesman, John Qumcy 
Adams : — "What order of men under the most absolute of 
monarchies, or the most aristocratic of republics, was ever 
invested with such an odious and unjust privilege as that of 
the separate and exclusive representation of less than half a 
million owners of slaves, in the Hall of this House, in the 
chair of the Senate, and in the Presidential mansion ? This 
investment of power in the owners of one species of property, 
concentrated in the highest authorities of the nation, and 
disseminated through thirteen of the twenty-six States of the 
Union, constitutes a privileged order of men in the community, 
more adverse to the rights of all, and more pernicious to the 
interests of the whole, than any order of nobility ever known. 
To call government, thus constituted, a Democracy is to insult 
the understanding of mankind. ... It is doubly tainted 
•with the infection of riches and of slavery. There is no 
name, in the language of national jurisprudence, that can 
define it — no model in the records of ancient history, or in 
the political theories of Aristotle, with which it can be likened. 
It was introduced into the Constitution of the United States 
by an equivocation — a representation of property under the 
name of persons. Little did the members of the Convention 
from the Free States, imagine or foresee, what a sacrifice to 
Moloch was hidden under the mask of this Concession." 

It needs to be better understood, that the Kolers of the 
South are not for the most part the Large Planters. For 
content with their ample possessions, — engaged in business 



RULERS OF THE SOUTH. 83 

pursuits which task their judgment and occupy their time, — 
refined by culture, foreign travel, and wide observation of 
society, these gentlemen, as a class, stand aloof from partisan 
politics They rarely enter into official position, either 
within their own States, or under ihe National Government. 
The actual Rulers of the South are a restless set -of Pro- 
fessional Politicians, who trained in county-courts or " on 
the stump," to play with the passions and prejudices of the 
mob, — ambitious while dependant, luxurious while poor, 
without fixed position yet craving for rank, habituated to 
tyrannize and unwont to obey, — become artful adventurers. 
They are genuine Demagogues. They bet on candidates, 
as they would on a race-horse ; and gamble with great 
questions as with cards or counters, anxious only to win. 
Office is their Eldorado ; and it is no less ruin, than shame, 
when a change of parties casts them from fortune's giddy 
wheel to the dust. 

These are the men, who have conspired against the peace 
and life of the Republic, amidst secret conclaves of the 
National Capital, which they have made corrupt by their 
criminal intrigues. These are the unprincipled schemers 
who have maddened the minds of the smaller planters. 
— ignorant and illiterate, and closely confined to their 
isolated homes, as for the most part they are, — with 
ridiculous tales about "Abolition aggression." These 
are the pioneers of "Filibuster" descents upon Cuba, 
Mexico, Central America, etc. — speculating covertly in 
" scrip" of the States to be, but running few personal risks. 
These are the heialds of a revived Slave Trade, holding 
out the allurement to all above " mean whites," that 
then " every citizen shall own his negro." These finally, 
are the men, who for years have systematically forced 
the Slave question upon Congress and the Nation, — while 
shouting that Abolitionists should be silenced ; and have 
demanded that the Slave System should be nationalized, 
for the sake of a Sectional interest. These are the " Dis- 
unionists " who crave for Secession, — because failing of 
highest preferment within the United States, they feel sure 



84 THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH. 

of ruling the " Confederate States." It was Mr. A. H. 
Stephens who only last autumn declared, that the leaders 
of "Secession" are "disappointed politicians ! " 

And now, after this contrast of the combatants, 1 am ready- 
to answer the question, as to the probable issue of this strife 
as follows : — There is not a thought of subduing the People 
of the South, and holding their States, as, conquered provin- 
ces. The notion is absurd ! And the People of the North 
and of the West are altogether too earnest and practical, to 
waste the lives of their bravest and best, and to pour out 
their treasure on such criminal folly. They respect and love 
the high-minded and generous, the delicate and gentle, the 
cultivated and religious People of the South — of whom there 
are tens of thousands, notwithstanding the madness that 
rules the hour — too cordially, ever to wish for their humilia- 
tion. They believe that the better classes of the South, 
when once they shall shake off this fit of political frenzy, 
will themselves recognize, that in place of personal animosi- 
ties, and State jealousies, and party interests, the People of 
the North and West are prompted in this terrible trial by 
only the most loyal, fraternal, and magnanimous motives. 
Finally, all have resolved, that the very mode of conducting 
hostilities, on the part of the Government, of the Army, and 
of the People, shall demonstrate such respect for property, 
regard for persons, courteous consideration and enlarged 
humanity, that the most hardened in hate amongst the 
Southerners must relent. Thus, it may be hoped that this 
contest, sad and awful as it cannot' but be, in its course, will 
not sunder for ever, but soon re-unite the People of the 
South with the People of the North and West. 

The Republican Government and the united Free-People 
do, however, deliberately purpose to humble, it may be for 
ever, the presumptuous Slave Oligarchy, who, for their 
own base ends, have bred this hideous and gratuitous mis- 
chief. Is such an expectation extravagant ? If it be true, 
— as is firmly believed, and as I have attempted to prove, — 
that the People of the South feel themselves oppressed by a 
Faction; that this Conspiracy has been consummated by a 
ew designing men, working on the passions of the lower 



THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH. 85 

class of planters ; that a strong Union party, composed of 
the wisest, best and most conservative people, throughout 
the South, waits eagerly for occasion to act ; and that many 
of the most influential and wealthy planters, statesmen 
and citizens, even in the Seceding States, are indignant at 
the course of the Conspirators ; does it appear to be in the 
least improbable, that one or two disastrous defeats in the 
field, and popular agitations produced by want, added to fear 
of Slave insurrections, may suddenly, ere many months, 
produce a panic, ending in a " sauve qui peut" among the 
arch-rebels ? 

Certainly the Republican Government, by some decisive 
course, will ensure, — if it can be done, — freedom for the 
People of the South to pass judgment on the acts of their 
Rulers. This the President is constitutionally bound to do, 
and he will do it. Who can foretell the issue ? He is a 
bold man, who will pretend to predict in detail the succes- 
sive stages of the impending struggle. Peace may be made 
before Christmas. The contest may be prolonged for a 
year. The " Confederate States " may possibly, in some 
form or other, win independence and recognition. It is 
barely conceivable, that the People of the South may 
deliberately resolve to ask, in some constitutional method, 
for a Dissolution of their ties with the Union But it does 
not seem rash to prophecy, that whatever destiny befals the 
South for the present, the days of the Slave Oligarchy are 
numbered. 

3 By " the People of the South" has thus far been 
meant the great body of the Whites, and especially the 
Non-Slaveholders. Mr. H. R. Helper, in his powerful and 
eloquent volume on the kt Impending Crisis in America," 
has clearly shown, from his own long experience as a 
Southerner, the persecutions slights and hardships, to which 
the great body of the Now- Slaveholders are subject. And 
Mr. James Stirling, in his admirably just and sagacious 
" Letters from the Slave States," has also proved that it is 
only " a paltry handful of proprietors, to whose supposed 
interests and real ruin is sacrificed the prosperity of millions 



86 THE SLAVE- SYSTEM. 

of their fellow-countrymen."* Indeed a careful analysis of 
the last Census shows, that the political power of the South is 
actually in the hands of some Forty or Fifty thousand Plan- 
ters. Will this small body of men, congregated in great 
measure, upon a few square miles, of special sections of the vast 
Southern territory, be permitted much longer to control the 
action, mould the thoughts, and determine the destinits of 
Six or Eight Millions of -nominal Freemen? Can it be 
tolerated, that they should make virtual serfs of the upland 
farmers, of the town mechanics, of foreign emigrants, of 
enterprising workmen from the Free States, — silencing their 
speech, crippling their energies, hindering their ingress and 
egress by a vexatious passport system, overhearing their pri- 
vate talks, spying into their private letters, and in countless 
ways harrassing them with mean and petty persecutions, — 
solely to uphold, advance and diffuse one interest? Nations 
are logical ! And the People of the South, as well as of the 
Free States, are asking: — '-How has the Corporation 
of Planters succeeded in so long maintaining, — under 
professedly Republican Institutions, — this monstrous usur- 
pation ?" 

The answer is found in two words. They rule, by means 
of the Slave System. 

Here then we reach the very root of that Tree of Death, 
which, since the day of "Constitutional Compromises," has 
been stealthily outspreading its monstrous convolutions, 
until with serpent-like folds it has threatened to overgrow 
and consume to the core, the Republic. So long as there 
was the least hope, that the Slavic System would die out 
and disappear, it was tolerated, with a forbearance, com- 
passion and patience, which now appear criminal But this 
Conspiracy of the Slave Oligarchy has for ever done away 
with " compromise." It is clear, now, that either the Slave 
System or the Republic must be exterminated. The People 
of the Free States, aye ! the People of the Slave States also. 
— witness Western Virginia aud North Carolina, witness 
East Kentucky and Tennessee, witness the highlands of 



* Stirling's Letters, page 342. 



ASPECTS OF SLAVERY. 87 

even Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, are rapidly coming 
to a fixed resolve, that the axe shall be laid at the 
root, and that the whole Slave System, trunk and branches, 
shall be torn up, and burned to ashes in a flame of loving 
justice. 

To discuss this great subject thoroughly, — to show the 
various aspects in which Slavery, Slaveholding Institutions, 
Slave-Laws, Slave-Masters, and Slaves are, at this very 
crisis, presenting themselves to the Government and People 
of the United States, — is here impossible. 

1 § There is, first, the Militaky view of Slavery ;— for, in a 
period of war, as was long since proved by John Quincy 
Adams, any commander who enters a Slave State, in 
obedience to the National Government, has an unquestion- 
able right, if he thinks it best, to proclaim Emancipation, 
and to rally the freed men around the National Banner. 

2 § There is next, what may be called the Strategic view ; 
for since the times of the great Henry Clay onwards, it has 
been universally understood, that the West would,- under no 
circumstances, and upon no conceivable conditions, surrender 
the free control of the Mississippi and of its outlets. Never 
will Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri, bought as they were 
by the Union, be yielded up to the " Confederate Slave- 
Republic." And a single glance at a map will show, that 
the National Government at Washington must hold the line 
of the Potomac aftnl the Chesapeake, to guard the " District " 
freely given to the .Republic. The same may be said of 
Florida, also bought by the Nation. At the close of the 
contest, Pensacola, Key- West, and Tortugas will be retained 
by the United States. Never will they be allowed to pass 
into hostile lands. — especially to serve as a "point d'ajjpui" 
for Slavery Expansion. 

o § Next arises the Geographical view ; for the more the 
subject of Southern Slavery is studied, the more apparent 
does it become, that the real contest is not one between 
States, divided by parallels of latitude, but one of High- 
lands against Lowlands, of Farmers against Planters. The 
whole magnificent region, well wooded, well watered, fertile, 
rich with mineral ores, and admirably adapted for 



88 ASPECTS OF SLAVERY. 

manufactures, -^salubrious and beautifully picturesque, — 
which, beginning at the Potomac, outspreads to the uplands 
of Georgia, Alabama and MississippiTis wholly unfit for 
Planters, and invites Free Workmen" from the North and 
from Europe. 

4 § Closely connected with this is the Economical view ; 
for as may be seen from all the quotations I have purposely 
given, especially from Mr.. Spratt's astonishing expose, — 
Slavery cannot hold its own against Democracy, with Slaves 
selling at fifteen hundred or two-thousand dollars. Free 
Labour is vastly cheaper, as well as more efficiently produc- 
tive and less wasteful. Without fresh "African Stock," the 
career of the Planters is ended. They are utterly routed, 
by the irresistible pressure of all the industrial, inventive, 
scientific financial and commercial tendencies of Civiliza- 
tion. " African Stock " will not be imported, without a 
chronic war with the United States, whatever alliances 
the "Confederates" may enter into. Neither in nor out of 
the Union, will Slavery be allowed to expand, except by 
fighting every inch of its way. The Slave System has reached 
its utmost bound. The whole South must soon be overflowed 
by the resistless tide of Free Labour, pouring in from Europe 
and the North, bringing on its currents agricultural, mechan- 
ical, manufacturing and commercial capital and skill, and 
fertilizing, through countless channels of irrigation, the vast 
domain which Slavery has left exhausted a%d sterile. 

5 § From the Economical rises the Political view of 
Slavery. And already it is seen, that the intolerable exactions 
and aggressions of the Slave Power, culminating in this 
awful Conspiracy, will be the means of renovating the 
National Conscience. Heretofore, only a few earnest patriots 
had recognized, how all corrupting was the influence of the 
Slave Oligarchy. But within these few years past. States- 
men and People have awakened, with mingled indignation 
and shame, to find that National Legislation and National 
Policy have been vitiated, since the earliest days of the 
Republic, by the intrigues of the Slaveholders; — that all 
parties, have in turn been bought up or crushed, used or 
cast aside, to serve the ends of this domineering faction ; that 



COMPROMISES OF THE CONSTITUTION 89 

it is the Slave- System, and the Slave-System alone,— that 
has paralyzed magnanimous patriotism, — taught later gener- 
ations to sneer at great principles, for which their forefathers 
died, as "glittering generalities ;" crazed the People's imag- 
tion with dreams of "manifest destiny," and maddened their 
energies with the passion for aggrandizement; and finally that 
has degraded Politics into a game for Sharpers and made of the 
political arena a gambling hell, where lucky winners scramble 
for the " spoils of office." Tracing these foul streams to 
their source, Statesmen and People alike discover, that the 
" Compromises of the Constitution" have been the bitter 
fountain of the Nation's woes. Republicans and Democrats 
may alike feel loyally bound, — by the pledges of their ances- 
tors, to observe the express provisions of the Constitution, 
as strictly construed, until they can be lawfully amended. 
But nothing is more certain, in the future of the United 
States, than that, henceforth, the " Supreme Law " of the 
Nation will be interpreted by the light of the Principles 
declared in its Preamble. Henceforth Liberty and not 
Slavery will be reverenced as the Common Law of the whole 
land. Henceforth Free Institutions will alone be regarded 
as National, while Slave Institutions will be treated as Sec- 
tional. Little will be heard, hereafter of the rights of 
Masteis, which, as dependant exclusively upon State Laws, 
must be local; while everywhere, throughout the South and 
North alike, the rights of Freemen will be uncompromisingly 
claimed, as universal, because sanctioned by the National 
Constitution and by National Laws. It is true, then, with- 
out exaggeration, that the cannon shot at Fort Sumter 
sealed the death warrant of the Slave System. 

Whether the Cotton States are permitted to secede, or 
whether they return to their allegiance, the doom of Slavery 
will be equally sure. If they insist upon independence, the 
strategic line, already described, as marked out by the geo- 
graphical divisions of the South, will be drawn. And how 
long can the " Confederates " retain their cherished institu- 
tion ? There will be no '■• Fugitive-Slave Law " then, no 
" Dred Scott " Judges of the Supreme Court, no District 
Marshals and pliant Commissioners ready to intercept the 



90 THE POLITICAL PROBLEM. 

followers of the North Star. Steamers and rail-roads will 
.all be open then to emigrants from the Slave States, no 
matter how long the cordon of home-guards. Brave old 
Brown, of Osawatomie, knew well the convenierces of the 
Alleghany range. And Slaves by the scores and the hun- 
dreds, from Georgia and Alabama, would soon tread a high- 
way through the vallies, in their exodus. Not to speak of 
the terrible danger of Slave Insurrections, and of " Mean- 
White " rebellions, the destiny of Slave Institutions in the 
" Confederate States," would be quickly settled by the pro- 
cess of self-emancipation and border war. If, on the other 
hand, as is a thousand fold more probable, the Union-party 
and the People of the Cotton States cast off the rule of the 
Slave Oligarchy, and accept once more the protection and 
aid of the Republic, what then will be the fate of the Slave 
System? It may be briefly told. Its prestige gone, its 
privileges forfeited, its power broken, it will linger on, by 
sufferance only — till it can be justly, yet generously disposed 
of for the bene6t of Slaves and Masters alike. The States- 
men of the Slave States, taught by the stern lesson of 
fact, — accumulated at each decennial period, in the National 
Census, — will be compelled to admit, what all Northern 
Statesmen have long since seen, that there is one way and 
one way only, by which the South can replace itself on a 
level of peerage with the North and West. That way is, — 
to surrender the exclusive and unjust method of "Three- 
Fifths representation," to welcome cordially to the half 
reclaimed territories of the South' Free Immigrants, — and 
finally, by Emancipation, to raise the Four Millions of Slaves 
into the class of Freemen, and to acknowledge them as con- 
stituent parts of the People. Sooner or later, in some way 
or other, this must be the political solution of the Slavery 
Problem. 

6. From the Political view emerges, as central and vital, 
the Religious view of Slavery. And here, again, it is felt 
with devout thanksgiving, throughout the Free States, 
that this Judgment-Day of the Republic has been sent 
in mercy more than anger. Terrible as appears to be this 
Civil War, it is humbly welcomed, as the Providential 



MORAL DEGRADATION. 91 

method of National redemption. Monstrous has been the 
N at ion's crime ; total let the repentance be, and costly the 
sacrifice of atonement. If the Fathers of the Republic had 
but proved true to their broadly proclaimed principles of 
Liberty and Equality, by emancipating their bondsmen. — 
through that one concession to justice, they would have 
spared their descendants untold miseries, of moral and 
social, individual and collective debasement. If intermediate 
generations had but spurned the demon of " compromise," 
from the National Council Chambers, from Courts of Justice, 
from Party Conventions, nay ! from the Christian Church 
in America, through all its communions, — occasions enough 
had occurred for National repentance. The purchase of Louis- 
iana, the admission of Missouri, the Annexation of Texas, 
the War with Mexico, — each and all had afforded a sublime 
opportunity, for the conscience of the Nation to control 
public conduct. 

B ut this conscience had been deadened by the intoxicating in- 
fluence of worldly prosperity and boastful pride, with which 
the sudden expansion of the Cotton and Sugar interests had 
drugged the commercial classes. The Slave Oligarchy of 
the South and the Capitalists of the North, — the great 
Planters and the great Manufacturers, — divided as they were 
on some points of policy, yet brought a concerted power to 
bear upon the Public Opinion of the whole Nation, — until 
the mean law of mercenariness took full possession of politi- 
cal parties and ambitious statesmen, of ecclesiastical bodies 
and leading divines, of heads of colleges and aspiring editors, 
— of all in every class, whose aim was worldly success. 
The moral degradation, that ensued, was appalling. From 
the day when the Fathers of the Republic, even Statesmen 
of North Carolina and Virginia, responded "Amen" to 
Wesley's brief yet eloquent assertion, that '• Slavery is the 
sum of all villanies, " and when Emancipation Societies 
were active through all the Southern States, — down to the 
shameful era, when Presidents of Northern Colleges could 
write laboured arguments, to prove that- Slavery is a Divine 
Institution, bestowed in blessing on the Patriarchs, and 
•established as God's Law, through Moses, and when wealthy 



92 THE ANTI-SLAVERY EEFORM. 

and influential Bible and Missionary Associations, in New- 
York and Boston, could tolerate if not approve the claim of 
Slaveholders to be regarded as "Bible-Christians,'' and 
acknowledged blasphemous Slave traders as "Christian 
Missionaries," — the lapse had been so headlong and so 
fathomless, that lovers of Freedom asked in awe, whether 
God had not utterly cast off this Nation of hypocrites, and 
"left them to their evil choice." The whole " head was sick 
and the heart faint," with sophistry, duplicity and mocking 
delusions. The Republic seemed given up " to believe a 
lie ;" and amidst vaunted professions of universal Liberty, 
the Slave System was enshrined as chief idol in the National 
temple. 

It was while the United States were thus presenting to 
Christendom the awful spectacle of a Nation, — nobly born, 
purely bred, rarely privileged, — even yet in its youth, sink- 
ing into decrepitude, and wasting away through political 
profligacy, that the Anti-Slavery Reform appeared. It was 
the first sign of returning health. Very doubtful at first 
looked the struggle between Life and Death : while the 
popular frenzy, exasperated by political and ecclesiastical 
partisanship, sought to expel the heroic yet pacific band, 
who came with heavenly ministration to the fever-stricken 
Republic. After ages will recognize the moral miracle, 
which, under God, this sublime Reform has wrought. There 
is no time to sketch the history of the National transfor- 
mation, — personal, social, practical, ethical, spiritual, — 
through the power of its essential principles. But it may 
be confidently affirmed, that the Anti-Slavery movement 
has quickened a religious love of Freedom, by whose in- 
fluence the People of the United States will become new- 
born. For the first time in their history as a Nation, are 
they solemnly consecrating themselves, to fulfil the will of 
Providence in the New World entrusted to their care, to 
realize the Ideal of a Union of Freemen, to accomplish faith- 
fully their appointed destiny as a Christian Commonwealth* 

A hitherto unfelt reverence for Man, — for Human 
Eights, — for Freedom of Thought, Speech and Action — seeks 
embodiment in a purer style of Personal integrity, and a 



PEACTICAL EMANCIPATION. 93 

loftier standard of National rectitude. Through scores of 
presses, once dry and hard in worldly conservatism, come 
generous calls of hopeful philanthrophy. Statesmen rely 
on the " Higher Law," as the sanction for broad humanity 
in legislation, and trust to the matured principles and con- 
scientious convictions of the People, rather than to party 
passions or to class interests, in advancing measures of 
reform. From hundreds of pulpits, but lately close sealed 
by creeds and conventions, come earnest exhortations of 
Practical Christianity. And the large Ecclesiastical organi- 
zations, long rent in twain by twenty years of Pro-Slavery 
and Anti-Slavery strife, have learned that no half-way com- 
promises can reunite their scattered communions ; but that 
only by the broadest assertion, that Christian Fraternity 
demands equal freedom for Slaves as for Masters, can they 
regain their lost influence over the Nation's heart, and replace 
the Church in its appointed sphere, as conscience to the 
State. And now, all this revival of religious and moral 
enthusiasm combines to consecrate this " Civil War." Far 
and wide, among the People of the Free States, it is felt to 
be, and from pulpit and press it is declared to be, — a Holt 
Wak, — because waged in defence of Loyalty against Trea- 
son, and of Liberty against Despotism ; because entered 
upon from no selfish passions nor worldly ambition, but 
from stern sense of duty ; because manifestly appointed by 
Providence, for the Salvation of the Republic from the sin 
and sorrow of Slavery. 

7. And finally, all these views, Military, Strategic, Geo- 
graphical, Economical, Political, and Religious, all demand 
some Practical Method of Emancipation, — a method, at 
once, just, generous and wise. Can such a method be 
found? Then and then, only, will the United States be 
made truly one in permanent and universal peace. 

For the first time,' — literally the first, — since the organi- 
zation of the Republic, does the duty now present itself to 
the Nation, of acting in a National capacity, through Con- 
gress and the Executive, upon the Slave System. Estab- 
lished in the Colonial era, and by Colonial legislation, 
Slavery was from the first a strictly local and domestic insti- 



94 PRACTICAL EMANCIPATION. 

tution. And, alike under the Confederation and the Con- 
stitutional Union, the Slaveholders jealously " reserved " an 
exclusive control over their "chattels/' among State-Rights. 
Only by three special and carefully defined provisions of 
the Constitution, could the Nation be held to have anv rela- 
tions, whatsoever, to the Slave System. And that this was 
the universally understood fact, appears in the history of the 
various methods, whereby the several States which are now- 
Free arrived at Emancipation. Each acted in entire inde- 
pendence of the National Government, and of its sister 
States. No one of them received the least aid from the 
National Government, —although New York set free ten 
thousand Slaves on one day. The precedent having thus 
been set, from Massachusetts southward to Pennsylvania, it 
was hoped that in turn, the various Border States and then 
the Gulf States would adopt, each for itself, some method 
best adapted to its own peculiar necessities. There was a 
period, when even Virginia and Kentucky, North Carolina 
and Tennessee, earnestly discussed plans of Emancipation. — 
without ever thinking of assistance from the United Stages, 
aud looking solely to the increased value of la id and real 
estate, for compensation. All the precedents thus far, have 
been unanimously in favour of independent and unaided 
action, by each separate State, in its self-emancipation. 
Statesmen have judged it to be the wisest policy, thus to 
leave each State untrammelled, in the final disposition of 
this difficult problem. And the People of the Free States, 
with a generous consideration and scrupulous courtesy that 
does them honour, have deliberately and decidedly held aloof 
from the slightest interference with the " domestic institu- 
tion." Only since the Slave Oligarchy first revealed their 
grasping schemes of aggression, — have the Anti-Slavery 
Keformers endeavoured to advance the cause of abolition 
within the Slave States, by the moral power of Public 
Opinion. And the Liberty Party, a small, though from 
character and intelligence a highly influential body, is the 
sole organization in the Free States, which has claimed for 
the National Government, a Constitutional right, by Con- 
gressional, Executive and Judicial action, to initiate schemes 



PRACTICAL EMANCIPATION. 9{* 

for Universal Emancipation. The Republican Party, as is 
well known, has consistently disclaimed any such right, 
and by public pledges, often repeated, has disavowed the 
purpose of using any form of legal constraint to compel 
Emancipation. Thus, in a relation of even extremest for- 
bearance, have invariably stood the Free States and the 
National Government, until the outbreak of the Slaveholder's 
Conspiracy. * 

Now all is changed, — changed utterly, — -changed for ever. 
The '• War-Power," as was conclusively demonstrated by 
John Quiney Adams, authorizes and enables the National 
Government to " sweep this institution into the Gulf,"* if 
such a course shall be necessary to re-establish peace. And. 
since the Slave-Oligarchy have proposed, as their ultimatum, a 
Universal " Slave Republic," the Nation may well feel 
prompted to treat with them on like terms, and to demand a 
Universal Free Republic ; for only thus can Peace, Order, 
Union, be made secure and permanent. But already the 
contingencies of the Rebellion are forcing, and must continue 
to force this difficult question upon the National Government : 
— " what shall be done with the fugitives, who will amount 
to thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands?" Again,, 
insurrections of the Slaves will inevitably break out in all 
directions. " Shall the Army of Freemen be called upon to 
crush down and exterminate these unhappy fellow-beings, in 
the first enjoyment of their birth-right of liberty ?" In God's 
name, in the name of Humanity, — Never. For ends 
of order and obedience, these self-emancipated Slaves will 
be marshalled under the National Banner. Will they not 
thereby, according to usage and precedent, be held to have 
fairly earned their freedom at the end of the campaign ? A 
thousand times — Yes ! And finally, the position of Western 
Virginia and of East Tennessee, added to the strategic 



* "■ If civil war come, if insurrection come, is this beleagured capital, 
is this besieged Government to see millions of its subjects in arms, 
and have no right to break the fetters which they are forging into 
swords ? No ! The war-power of the Government can sweex> this 
institution into the Gulf." — John Quiney Adams. 



96 NATIONAL EMANCIPATION. 

necessities already considered in regard to Maryland and 
Missouri, will absolutely demand that some system of policy, 
in regard to the whole subject of Emancipation, should be 
straightway adopted. The problem cannot be longer pushed 
aside. It must be solved now. 

Can, then, a National Policy of Emancipation be in- 
augurated, which will be just at once to the Slaves, to the 
Masters, to the Freemen of the Nation, and to the Republic 
in its collective Unity? I answer with glad confidence, Yes! 
Already has such a policy been more than once announced, 
in its fundamental principle, by Hon. W. H. Seward in the 
Senate, and by Hon Gerritt Smith in the House of 
.Representatives, — by the Liberty Party, as speaking through 
Mr. Filihu Burritt, — by the New York Tribune, and by 
the New York Times, even now amidst the chaos of the 
present crisis, — by the practical business men, who suggested 
a plan for emancipating the Slaves in Maryland, — and 
finally, by the admirable and timely Petition of the " Women 
of the North," which will be presented to Congress at the 
coming Session.* 

This general principle may be stated thus : — Loans from 
the National Treasury, — Grants from the National Domain, — 
and the Use of National Steamers, — in behalf of any State, 
that shall declare the purpose of Emancipation, and shall 
ask aid from the Government of the Union. f 



* " To the Honourable Senate and House of Representatives in Con- 
gress Assembled : — The Petition of the Women of the North, Citizens 
of the United States of America. 

Whereas a fratricidal war is raging in the once United States of 
America, having for its real origin and cause the holding of slaves in 
some States, we, the women of the North, pray Congress to propose to 
any State or States, beginning with Maryland, which shall proclaim 
emancipation within its borders, aid from the United States' Treasury, 
to remunerate all individual*, who, having no property except slaves, 
would be impoverished by their emancipation." 

+ T do not wish to be understood as saying, that either of the earnest 
friends of Freedom, whose names I have mentioned, would describe 
in these terms, the general principle of " Compensated Emancipation." 
The above statement is the general plan, which I have advocated for 
more than ten years, and I alone am responsible for it. — W. H. C. 



FREE INSTITUTIONS. 97 

There are many considerations, which forbid any attempt 
to unfold in detail the fundamental principle of National 
Policy, thus given ; but I do not hesitate to predict, as a 
probable event, that in some form or other, and at the 
time and by the means which to them shall seem wisest, 
the First Republican Administration, — Congress consenting, 
— will offer to the Slave States some liberal and every way 
practicable scheme of National Co-operation, in aiding 
them to escape from the terrible position, wherein they are 
entangled by the Slave System. From this appalling Civil 
War will date the new era of National Regeneration. 
Already hope hears the glorious anthem : — " How beautiful 
upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good 
tidings, that publisheth Peace." 

My word is spoken. I believe, with the brightest assu- 
rance of faith, that the llepublic of the United States is to 
be redeemed, reconciled, re-united, and that right speedily, 
into a true Union of Freemen ! and of Freemen only ! 
Thus do I read the Signs of the Times ! And now, as I 
began this address by an unreserved declaration, that in the 
order of Providence, and by relative duties to Humanity, 
Great Britain and the United States are One Great Nation, 
so would I close, by asserting in equally strong and uncom- 
promising terms, that the Work of this Great Nation is one 
around the earth. What is that work ? It is to diffuse 
universally, and to establish in permanence, Free In- 
stitutions ; — Freedom of Conscience and Intellect; — 
Freedom of Constitutional Government and of Social 
Reform ; — Freedom of Commercial Exchange and of Inter- 
national Intercourse. And the very root of this grand Tree 
of Life is Free Labour. 

These two Nations being thus one, — what means this call 
for "Neutrality,'' — amidst the life and death struggle of the 
United States ? It means, does it not, — that disheartened 
and grieved at the outbreak of Civil War, Great Britain 
desires to maintain towards all her kinsmen the attitude of 
pacific remonstrance and appeal ; that she will not assume 
to be Umpire in this " fratricidal strife," glad as she might be 



98 NEUTRALITY. 

to interpose as a Mediator ; that she will refrain from 
inflicting the least injury upon either party in this "un- 
natural coutest," but will hold herself ready for freest inter- 
change of good, with North and with South alike. I have 
tried to state the ground .of Neutrality fairly; and it is an 
intelligible position. But if Great Britain could once see 
rightly, that de facto the two parties in this controversy 
are: — I, A friendly Nation;, — and -2, A treacherous Conspi- 
racy, — would she not reject at once the mere thought of 
Neutrality. Alas ! that she has allow* d herself to be so 
grossly deceived by the boastful presumption of a Slave 
holding Oligarchy ; that she has failed to recognize the full 
significance of the truth, that the United States is One 
Nation, organized under one Constitution, ruled by one 
Supreme Law, represented by one Government. Theu com- 
mon sense and international comity would have combined to 
declare, that so long as a Republican Ambassador resides 
near the Court of St. James, while a British Ambassador is 
resident in Washington, and so long as the " Star Spangled 
Banner 1 * and the " Meteor Flag," meet in peaceful alliance, 
on every sea around the globe, Great Britain cannot stand 
Neutral, between the Republic and the Rebels who are plot- 
ting to destroy that Republic's peace, power, honour, influ- 
ence, and very existence. Is not the attempt to maintain 
such Neutrality a deju; vi rdict, against her ally? 

But be that as it may, assuredly Neutrality does not mean 
indifference, as to whether Eight or .Wrong, Order or Anarchy 
shall conquer in this controversy, — so long as the ends of 
commerce and industry are served ; indifference as to the grand 
moral interests, involved in this struggle between Liberty and 
Slavery, — if only the principle of Free Trade prevails ; indiffer- 
ence, if but British power be extended, — as to whether a great 
Christian Commonwealth, the first born of this Mother of 
Free States, — whose germs of life, early nurture, expanding 
power, and majestic Ideal were all derived from British 
Religion, Literature and Law, shall suddenly be crippled, 
maimed and slain, by a barbarous Despotism, that centuries 
ago should have been cast out from civilized Christendom. 
Such Neutrality would be as monstrous, as it jyould be 



PKOVIDENTIAL ALLIES. 99 

incredible. Great Britain cannot be neutral in this 
crisis, even if she would ; for she cannot eclipse her 
own glorious past. The heart stirring eloquence of 
her Orators, the thrilling strains of her Poets, the 
humane legislation of her Statesmen, her magnanimous 
example of Universal Emancipation, the very genius and 
spirit of her whole People, are an irresistible power on the 
side of the Eepublic. 

- When, one year since, the Free People of the United 
States, with a spontaneous unanimity of regard, such as 
monarchs rarely command from their subjects, upbore on 
willing shoulders as on a throne, the Prince Royal, — in part 
to manifest their loyal love for the illustrious Queen of 
Great Britain, in part to attest in the eyes of all men their 
cordial regard for the old " Mother Country ;— and when 
in turn the future sovereign of this Nation, as repre- 
sentative of his People, bowed his head in reverence beside 
the tomb of Washington, — a treaty of confidential amity was 
thereby ratified and sealed between the two leading Free 
States of Christendom, which no pressure of untoward 
events should ever be allowed to break. Through long 
centuries such a symbol of International Friendship may not 
appear again. Let the omen be accepted, let the pledge be 
redeemed. Nowhere among the Nations can Great Britain 
or the United States find an ally so worthy of total trust 
and thorough concert in will and in deed as Providence 
has given them in one another. Rejoicing in each other's 
prosperity, aiding to establish and extend each other's 
power, proud in mutually reflected glory, growing ever 
stronger in their mutual strength, let them combine and 
diffuse their exhaustless energies, in redeeming and elevating 
the whole Human Race. 



Postscript. — Since my Address was entirely corrected and made 
ready to be put to press, a friend has called my attention to an 
admirably just and discriminating article in the New York Commercial 
Advertiser It is said to be from the pen of one of the most eminent 
lawyers in the State of New York. I rejoice to give room to a writer, 
who has been able so clearly to discern and to interpret the policy of 
Great Britain. He says : — 

"We regard tlie explanations given by B ritish ministers in both 
Houses of Parliament as highly satisfactory, and should the further 






100 POSTSCRIPT. 

consultations with its law officers, and the despatches carried out by 
the new American minister, lead the English government to stop at 
the point they have reached, — as we are almost certain they will, — 
we can see little or no danger of trouble in that quarter. There has 
been nothing said, nothing hinted, by that government about recog- 
nising the nationality or independence of the revolted States, and we 
feel sure that no such intention exists. 

" Great Britain will not judge the right of the controversy. She 
will respect actual facts. She will deal with the acts of the Secession 
States as a matter of fact, and not of principle. Can she do otherwise ? 
Would we submit to her doing otherwise ? If we were to insist upon 
her judging of the contest, we should admit her right of judging. If 
she has a right to decide on this as a question of principle, then we 
must consent to her deciding as she may judge fit, for we cannot insist 
that she shall form a judgment only on condition of its being in 
our favour. 

" She must be judge whether war is levied so as to differ from mere 
private marauding. But when such a war — treasonable, rebellious, or 
not — is levied so as to embrace armies, to comprehend large organized 
districts, and to call for the outpouring of the whole strength of the 
parent state, she can but regard and admit the fact. She is not to 
punish the treason or to put down the rebellion. She is not the 
keeper of our honour or the guardian of our nationality. These are 
things that we do for ourselves, nor will we admit a foreign inter- 
ference of that kind for or against us. 

" To what does it lead that she recognises the Secession States as 
belligerents ? She will not treat their citizens as pirates; but she will 
not prevent our doing so. They would not be pirates by the public 
law, although they would by the law of the nation to which they belong 
and from which they attempt to revolt. 

" It leads also to trade with these Secession States so far as neutrals 
may ; consequently British ships will protect their property if part of 
their cargoes, as neutral ships may. But they will not protect the 
property which is contraband. They will not override a blockade. 
This would be far more than treating them as belligerents. It would 
be at once an abandonment of neutrality and an act of war; while 
neutrality, or non-interference, is the sentiment of all the leading men 
of Great Britain. 

" Away with this distrust of England. She is our loyal friend, our 
natural ally, long forbearing with our wayward dealings, and more 
closely connected in intercourse, feeling and interest than she can be 
with any other people. Her honour, her sentiments, her conduct 
toward us for a long series of years, forbid all timorous fear* 
respecting her position in this crisis." 

FINIS. 



W. Vaughan, Printer, Exchange Street Eaat, Liverpool. 



LEFe'07 ^ 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2010 

PreservationTechnoiogies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 1 6066 
(724)779-2111 



